WITH an icy wind cutting across the Oberon Sports Ground, the Tigers hosted Blayney Bears last Saturday for the annual Can Assist charity day hoping to get their premiership challenge back on track after a disastrous last round against Mudgee. The Tigers did just that, defeating the Bears 42-10.
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The day was also a celebration of Oberon’s 60th anniversary in the Group 10 competition, with four members of the 1958 team making their way out on to the field before the main game to be honoured by the crowd.
To add to the occasion, the 2003 Tigers, in specially made jerseys, held a reunion and formed a guard of honour as each first-grader ran out, escorted by a player from the juniors.
The Tigers responded to the crowd, Jackson Brien ripping open the Bears’ defence to score and Ben McAlpine converting to open up a 6-0 lead within the first five minutes of the game.
From that point on, the Tigers were making easy metres, with Blake Fitzpatrick sharp out of dummy half and Mickey Hawkins eating up the ground to set alarm bells off for the Bears’ pack every time he touched the ball.
With captain/coach Luke Branighan on the sideline injured, Tui Oloapu sitting out the remaining week of his suspension and centre Abel Lefaoseu overseas, the Tigers were understrength, but McAlpine stepped up, taking over the tactical kicking game.
After placing a perfectly weighted cross-kick for Brenton Gibson, the big winger leapt high and sent the ball back infield to Tyler Hughes, who carried defenders over the line to extend the Oberon lead to 10-0.
Shortly after, Hawkins bruised his way over from short range and the Tigers were in command at 16-0.
Blayney eventually found some cohesion and had the Tigers under attack, but the defence held, with the hosts in no mood to let the visitors on to the scoreboard.
The remainder of the half saw second-rower Jake Dawe rewarded for his high work rate with a well-deserved four-pointer. Big Josh Starling took over the kicking duties and Oberon moved on to a 22-0 lead.
Gibson made an 80-metre break just before half-time that sparked waves of attack from the Tigers. With Blayney under enormous pressure, Nathan Booth surged over and Starling converted as the teams headed to the sheds with the scoreline reading 28-0.
Despite the lead, Branighan wasn’t happy with his troops, telling them that their defence needed to be better if they were going to compete with teams in the top four. His final message to the players was that they needed to be harder on themselves in the second half.
Tyler Hughes ensured the second half started the same way as the first by latching onto a McAlpine bomb to score an unconverted try.
With the Tigers up 32-0, Blayney burrowed over from dummy half to get themselves on the board 32-4. From this point on, the Tigers went quiet and the game lapsed into a lacklustre affair.
It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes that Dave Sellers moved the Tigers’ score along by muscling over in a determined effort, but Blayney responded straight away to reduce the lead to 36-10.
As the siren sounded, Starling charged through the Bears defence and found McAlpine backing up to finish off the game with a Tigers try. Luke Christie-Johnston converted for a 42-10 victory.
The league tag girls recorded their first win of the season, downing Blayney 16-4 in a great effort. The post-match celebrations resembled a grand final win and that’s why the crowd love this team! Lourie Bailey and Jess Ryan led the way as all the players rose to the occasion.
This week the Tigers are off to Carrington Park to face the Bathurst Panthers. With the return of Oloapu and Lefaoseu, team manager Darrin McFawn is sweating on the fitness report for Branighan. “It’s critical to have Luke on the paddock if we want to give the competition our best shot,” McFawn said.
League tag will kick off at 10.30am and premier league will run out at 2.15pm.
