Farrer’s successful University Shield side with the 2012 spoils. Photo: Grant Robertson
FARRER Memorial Agricultural High School’s fourth University Shield success was never in much doubt – not even after Tumut High scored the first try of the game after only three minutes.
From that point on the green and golds lit up Shark Park with try after try in a 54-4 win.
The left side attack had a field day and centre Kyle Avery was the main beneficiary with a remarkable five try effort in the first half.
He was unstoppable and the rest of his team-mates were just as impressive.
Tumut scored from a penalty set early through centre Tyron Gorman but Avery scored his first soon after captain Logan Harris saw a shortage of numbers on the Tumut right and threw a bullet pass to Avery to cross.
Five-eighth John Brady then made his first big impact on the game, but not his last, with a bomb that landed for Avery to score his second.
The third also came via Brady whose pin-point pass found Avery in space and he finished the job.
His incredible run of tries was halted when Brady scored one of his own but even then Avery had a hand in it.
He fed Will Gooch for the break and Brady finished the try on the next play.
But Avery wasn’t done and his fourth also came from another left-side move between Brady and Tremayne Sanbrook.
Avery still had some work to do but couldn’t be stopped.
Number five was a similar effort and it was 26-4 at the break.
Sanbrook had made big yards all game and got a reward after the interval with his own try and Brady grabbed his second when his own kick was kept alive and found him again in support.
Big Josh Pursche got in on the action with a clean line break and when Dylan Manicaros, Jacob Booby and Callum Hayne finished the try in the right corner.
It was only a momentary break in the left-side dominance as Gooch scored the next try after good lead-up work by John and Matt Brady.
Manicaros scored the last one to crack the half century and the green and golds started to celebrate.
“They deserve it,” coach Damian Kenniff said.
“We stepped up to that other competition (GIO Cup) and put it all on the line.
“They brought back a lot of experience from that.
“They’re good kids and they’ll play anywhere.
“They’re very unselfish.
“They’ll do anything for the team and they deserve to do well.”
The coach said the start was the only concern in an otherwise perfectly structured performance.
“In the first 10 minutes Tumut were really good,” Kenniff said.
“They’re a good side and even though the score won’t depict it, I’ve seen enough football to know that if they had got a sniff we would have been in for it.
“I still wasn’t comfortable until 10 minutes into the second half.
“Their centre (Tyron) Gorman, who plays for Gundagai, is clearly a very good player.”
The left-side attack was the key to the big win, but the lead-up work from the forwards was the starting point.
“Kyle Avery and John Brady, when we made a break they made the most of it,” Kenniff said.
