Even the scoreboard had trouble keeping up with a rampant Pirates on a day where they reached a century, skipper Conrad Starr achieved another milestone and another troupe of youngsters celebrated their first grade debuts.
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The premiers bounced back from what was by their lofty standards a disappointing last round performance in emphatic fashion, walloping a hapless Quirindi 114-nil.
Starr fittingly put the exclamation point on the victory, the number eight twisting his way over after the bell to equal Andrew Moodie’s record of six tries in a game.
Winger Sam Bowden also scooted in for four and scored the try that took them into triple figures, although the scoreboard was unable to register it as it only has the capacity for double digits.
Memorably debutants Toby Maslen, Ryan Baker and Wes Rooney also found the tryline with Maslen bagging a double.
The 17-year old looked far from out of place in first grade and was the players pick as their best. He also shared the three points with Baker, and earned plenty of praise from coach Mat Kelly.
Both were “great” he said.
“They weren’t overwhelmed at all.
“They looked like near veterans and just performed their roles,” he said.
“It was also really good to see the older fellas step up and have a real leadership role.”
Will Sorrenson and Jack Purkiss also got their first taste of first grade, the luxury of Pirates’ dominance allowing Kelly to fully utilise his bench.
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“It was good to see the young guys step up. There’s some good signs there,” he said.
The signs were ominous for Quirindi from the opening whistle, with Pirates scoring after just 37 seconds – Andrew Mepham unselfishly passing off to Maslen to gift him a five-pointer with his first touch in first grade.
Bowden doubled Pirates’ advantage a couple of minutes later, and when Starr reached out to get in on the act it made it 17-nil with still 70 minutes to play.
They were 70 minutes of pain for the Lions with Pirates moving them about like chess pieces and almost scoring at will.
Any time they got into their 22 there was a sense of a try coming, with the Lions seeming to have no answer to the speed and precision of Pirates attack.
Equally their defence was virtually impenetrable, which was one of the highlights for Kelly.
“We really struggled to put our first-up tackles together last week.
“That was a really pleasing aspect of today,” he said.
“We shut down their attack quickly.”
Not that the Lions had a lot of possession. They were for a lot of the game surviving off scraps, and generally struggled to hold the ball for any length of time.
A game Lions coach Will Pearce would rather forget, he said his side “didn’t turn up”.
“It was the worst game we’ve played all season,” Pearce said.
“I don’t think we showed up mentally or physically.”
He wasn’t sure what the reason was but the general intensity wasn’t there and in defence they weren’t getting up and shutting down Pirates’ players quick enough.
“We’re a much better team than we showed today,” he said.
That wasn’t to take anything away from Pirates who Pearce said are “obviously a class outfit”.
PIRATES 114 (Conrad Starr 6, Sam Bowden 4, Toby Maslen 2, Barton Leach, Andrew Wynne, Jacob Budd, Ryan Baker, Wesley Rooney, Morgan Pennefather tries, Andrew Mepham 10, Maslen, Rooney cons) d QUIRINDI 0.
