JAKE McManus joined North Tamworth clubmate Scott Blanch on six points as the Group 4 Best and Fairest Award continued to “jam up” following a seventh round of matches on the weekend.
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The Bears centre polled the three points from the referees when North outclassed Oxley Diggers 46-4 at Jack Woolaston Oval on Sunday.
McManus scored one of nine tries in the convincing win where Blanch also bagged three tries and fullback James Duchatel two.
McManus and Blanch are two points adrift of new B&F leader, Gunnedah pivot Hayden Smith, who polled the three points in his side’s 72-10 win over Armidale Rams at Rugby League Park in Armidale.
Smith scored three tries and kicked eight goals for a 28-point haul as halfback Callum Hayne also crossed for five tries.
Smith leads the B&F Award by a point from Hayne and West Lions halfback Sam Taylor, who failed to garner a B&F point in his side’s 32-30 loss to Narrabri at Scully Park.
Taylor did score a try and kick five goals in a match where Narrabri halfback Kialu Brown polled the three points, to take him to five points and equal with clubmate Nathan Harvey and West fullback Dylan Lake, who received the two points.
Narrabri captain-coach Lachlan Cameron’s one point took him to four points on a day which could have been his first first grade win at Scully Park with a Narrabri Blues side.
Cameron is one of 16 players within four points of Smith.
For McManus, the rise up the B&F table is a welcome one as he starts to enjoy and feel at home in his first season with the Bears.
Originally from Townsville, the 23-year-old physiotherapist arrived in Tamworth unheralded but such was his talent he was named in the Greater Northern Tigers.
He was playing out of position too, on the wing and in the centres.
Normally a lock, he’s not only adapting to new surroundings at Jack Woolaston Oval but a new position out in the centres.
“I don’t have as much to do (in defence) out there,” he said.
“I’m getting more used to it,” he said of the switch from lock to the centres.
“I’m really enjoying it.”
A Yeppoon junior, he played his senior footie in Townsville and is enjoying the move to Tamworth for both his football and work as a physio.
The cold might not be to his liking but the tough win at Narrabri two Sundays back was.
“I think that was good for us,” he said of a hard slog in the wet conditions.
“It was tough physically –14-6 in a mudheap. It was good for us.”
Resilience was one word he used to describe that Narrabri win as well as last Sunday’s smothering of the Diggers.
The Bears had to finish the game with 11 men after brothers Brock and Shane Wadwell were sinbinned for repeated infringements.
Bears coach Brad McManus wasn’t impressed and discipline might be a “d” word around the Bears camp after defence has been a key word in recent weeks.
The Bears have Gunnedah at home on Sunday and the Bulldogs, fresh from a 72-10 blasting of Armidale Rams in Armidale, might be another good test.
In other games, Narrabri Blues host Armidale Rams and Oxley Diggers and West Lions play a derby game at Scully Park.