ST Alberts produced one of their best Armidale Knockout showings in years to almost snag their second piece of silverware for the season.
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The students made it all the way to the final, where they held two-times defending champions Pirates to 17-all at half-time before eventually going down 39-24.
It followed a 57-12 upset win over Central North champions Narrabri the previous Friday night to claim the Hannaford-Southwell Memorial Shield.
“We’re happy with how the boys are going,” co-coach Tom Newsome said .
“We’ve got high aspirations.”
There was good reason for that even before the they took the field against the Blue Boars.
“We’ve only lost two guys out of the grand final team from last year,” Newsome said.
He was disappointed in the loss to Pirates but not the effort.
They were right in the game and competed well against a bigger outfit.
“Midway through the second half they kicked away with three straight tries,” Newsome said.
That was where it was won.
He felt it was only a couple of technical things that hurt them.
“Pirates offloading was pretty good,” he said.
“That was the difference.”
“They were standing in tackles and putting guys in space.”
“That’s very hard to counter.”
But there were some real positives in terms of how they played.
“The set piece was really good,” Newsome said.
He was also happy with how they fared at the breakdown and when they got the ball to their outside backs they looked very dangerous.
It’s been a signature of Albies over the better part of the last decade, and they really troubled Pirates with their speed out wide and at the back with Dan Sweeney.
He was a handful all game and made the break that led to the try that pushed them out to 17-5 lead midway through the first half.
It was straight out of the Albies playbook, Harry Webber finishing off a breakout from inside their half.
“Buzz” as he is more commonly known was good all weekend.
Newsome was also impressed with Jacko Thomas at five-eighth.
“He’s the big improver,” he said.
Five-eighth is one of the spots they need to fill with James Reynolds likely to be out for the first few months.
Ollie Bartlett was also very good in the pack, Newsome also noting that they’ve got some good pilferers.
He was generally very happy with their defence.
“We need to just get off the line a bit better on our own line,” he said.
“But that’s just being picky.
“There was some very good defence.”
The New England season will kick-off on April 2 and for Albies couldn’t start with any bigger a game – college rivals Robb on Parents Weekend.
