CHRIS Hunt was at his mercurial best at Manilla on Sunday as he helped pilot Oxley Diggers to an historic first win.
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The five-eighth was one of the driving forces behind Diggers’ revival, scoring crucial back to back tries in the second half and generally creating indecision in the Blues’ defence.
His efforts saw him earn the three best and fairest points and jump to outright second in the Group 4 Player of the Year Award standings.
It was the four points though that he was most satisfied with after the Diggers hauled in a 24-point deficit to roll Narrabri 54-38 and collect their maiden win.
“It was good to get our first win,” Hunt said.
“We’ve come close a few times. Finally we closed a game out.”
The Blues were one of those close games, making Sunday’s success that bit sweeter.
“Last time we played Narrabri we were in front by maybe 18 and threw it away,” Hunt said.
“The same with Gunnedah (they threw it away).”
On Sunday the Blues looked like they were going to run away with it when they jumped out to a 24-nil lead midway through the first half.
But Diggers rallied and returned fire with four unanswered tries to get back to 24-all.
“The boys just dug deep for one another,” Hunt said.
The second half was then a see-sawing affair.
After scoring on half-time to take a four-point lead into half-time, the Blues went 10 ahead when Travis Small crossed after a bit of a calamity of errors from both sides.
Enter Hunt.
He scored after the Blues had invited them in by knocking off the kick-off and then, minutes later, jinked his way through to put Diggers in front for the first time in the game.
From there he really controlled the show, with the Blues struggling to shut him down.
He said the key to their change in fortunes was playing patient controlled footy.
Those thoughts were echoed by captain-coach Jamie Trindall, with their patience the thing for him that turned things around for them.
“We had a bad preparation,” he said. “We had six players not turn up and had to scrape a bench together.”
The three weeks off also hurt them and he put the slow start in part down to that.
“We knew we could play better than we were (in that first 20 minutes),” he said.
He thought they were good all over the paddock.
“The backs put some good plays together and the forwards obviously laid the platform,” he said.
Some strong carries got them rolling forward.
After that initial period, their defence also had plenty of sting in it.
“We know we’ve got a good defensive side,” he said.
“It’s just our fitness.
“That drops off and our defence pays for that.”
Along with Hunt, he thought Brad Vidler, Will Saunders and Iawani Divavesi were very strong for them.
Blues second-rower Sam Sadler picked up the two points, and the hard-working Dustin Munn the one.