2025 Peter Mulholland Cup live stream: Hills Sports High School v Westfields Sports High School, Round 2

A try in the final minutes of Wednesday’s Peter Mulholland Cup clash was enough for Westfields to notch up a memorable comeback over Hills. Watch the REPLAY here.

Westfields Sports High staged a miracle comeback, coming back from 14 points down to upstage Hills Sports High 26-22 at Ringrose Park.

The battle of the powerhouses started anything but, with three dropped balls and a penalty from the opening four plays of the game.

It allowed Hills to slot an easy penalty goal, but Westfields soon found their way with Caleb Leiataua racing 50m from a scrum to touch down in the corner.

Soon it was Hills’ turn to showcase their pace, with Carter Saua picking up a loose ball as they defended their line, sprinting the best part of 90m to edge his school back in front despite a game chase from Zain Alameddine.

That sparked a run of momentum for Hills, with Izaac Masceranas taking on the line and catching the defence retreating to push the lead out to 14-6.

Despite being on the backfoot, an off-side player from a goal line restart got Westfields back to within a converted try as they slotted a penalty goal of their own on the stroke of halftime.

Any hopes of that changing the tide were swiftly taken away just minutes into the second half with a big charge from Kane Epere extending the margin to 12.

It looked like Kael Pritchard had pegged one back for the visitors, only to be ruled to have dropped it over the line before being bundled into touch.

It took Esilome Makaui carrying three defenders over the line to spark Westfields into gear, cutting it back to eight with 10 minutes remaining.

Hills were reduced to 12 for the rest of the match after Hayden Elkris hit Salatielu Tamati late, and the margin was soon just two when Cooper Carr pounced on a loose ball.

The comeback was completed in the final minutes when Alameddine threw a long ball to hit Khaled Kairouz to score in the corner and seal a memorable victory.

PREVIEW

While he admits Wednesday’s clash against rivals Westfields Sports High School comes with a sense of ‘heightened emotions’, Hills Sports High School coach Joe O’Callaghan is hoping his side can shift their focus into a strong start come game day.

Hills went down 28-18 to Central Coast in round 1 of the Peter Mulholland Cup and, after an almost five week wait, will get the chance to respond when they face Westfields in round 2.

The matchup will be available live and exclusive on KommunityTV from 12.30pm.

Reflecting on the main takeaways from his first game as coach, O’Callaghan said his side showed great fight but admitted they had clear room for improvement in a key area.

“I think the Central Coast game probably showed what I already knew a little bit about the group,” he said.

“We are young and inexperienced this year and you can do all the training in the world, but you don’t know until you get out on the park how it will go.

“I think in the first half especially, you could see a group in Central Coast who had a lot of boys having their second year of PMC and you could see that with the way they started the game.

“I think they shocked our group a bit, just with the standard of footy. But to the boys’ credit, you take goalkicking out of it, I was quite proud of them. They got it back to four tries apiece. Obviously, they scored right on the buzzer with that last try but I was proud of their fight and the way the boys put themselves back into the game.

Action from the Round 1 Peter Mulholland Cup clash between Hills SHS and Central Coast SC at Woy Woy Oval. Picture: Adam Yip

“But if you’re going to start that slow, we’re going to be up against it every single week. So that’s probably our focus going into this game, trying to start a bit faster now that we’ve seen what this level of football looks like.”

While the majority of the focus will be on that fast start, O’Callaghan admits that’s easier said than done when preparing for a game against traditional rivals Westfields.

“I think we’ve acknowledged it (the rivalry),” he said.

“Both schools need to win, it’s that simple. That’s where our focus has to be because whoever loses, I think they probably won’t be able to get out of the pool stage (of the tournament).

“I’d rather just focus on the process over any emotion tied to the game.

“I watched their first game and probably the most noticeable thing was that they are quite big across the park and that’s been pretty traditional of Westfield for a long time. They are full of talent (so that’s a challenge), but our boys are looking forward to the challenge.

“We’ve just got to find a way to manage that (emotion) and get back to just playing our brand and style of footy.”

Originally published as 2025 Peter Mulholland Cup live stream: Hills Sports High School v Westfields Sports High School, Round 2