Article Courtesy of the QT and Jay Buchan<\/p>\n
Ipswich beat new team Townsville Blackhawks 36-24 at the North Ipswich Reserve.<\/p>\n
With Wayne Bennett in the stands taking notes on how to play footy (if you believe a tongue in cheek Ben Walker), the Jets played irresistible football in the first half to lead 24-0 at half time.<\/p>\n
But after the break they lost the plot, slipping back into the errors and penalties that cost them the win the previous week against Wynnum Manly.<\/p>\n
In the end they did enough to get home, despite the Blackhawks scoring 20 unanswered points in the opening 18 minutes of the second half.<\/p>\n
It was the second successive weekend Broncos NRL coach Bennett had been at North Ipswich running his eye over the talent.<\/p>\n
Depending on who you were talking to, Bennett was there to see Daniel Vidot, Carlin Anderson, Matt Parcell or Chris Walker.<\/p>\n
It was 35-year-old right centre Walker who crossed for the Jets first try with a show and go to indicate he is getting closer to top pace and form.<\/p>\n
Parcell got the second, bamboozling the Hawks defence from dummy half.<\/p>\n
It was a vastly improved performance from Parcell compared to the previous weekend and justified those who have said he is close to Broncos selection.<\/p>\n
However none were likely to have impressed more than Jets left centre Nemani Valekapa.<\/p>\n
For the second weekend, Vale- kapa scored a try after making a bust up the left hand side from his own half, passing to support then backing-up to take the final pass.<\/p>\n
It is the former Fiji inter- national’s third season in the Jets.<\/p>\n
Valekapa, as much as anyone in the competition, looks to have earned himself a chance in the NRL.<\/p>\n
Valekapa played a crucial role when Fassifern won the 2011 Ipswich Rugby League A-grade title.<\/p>\n
From there he joined the Jets and has continued to grow as a player.<\/p>\n
He admits this is the best he has ever played.<\/p>\n
“All those days at pre-season have been good,” Valekapa said.<\/p>\n
“All the hard work is paying off.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been learning a lot from the coaches.”<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old admits he still harbours hopes of playing in the NRL. He hopes Bennett liked what he saw.<\/p>\n
“That’s what I’m here for,” he said, referring to his decision five years ago to leave his native Fiji and move to Kalbar to joined the Bombers. “Hopefully I can continue to improve my football with the Jets and see what comes.”<\/p>\n
State of play<\/strong><\/p>\n Ipswich Jets 36 (Nemani Valekapa 2, Matt Parcell 2, Chris Walker, Kurt Capewell tries; Wes Conlon 6 goals) def Townsville Blackhawks 24 (Zac Santo, Wayne Ulugia, Mosese Pangai, Rhys Matsen, Tom Humble tries; Tom Humble 2 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[],"post_layout":[],"class_list":["post-3233","club_news","type-club_news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/club_news\/3233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/club_news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/club_news"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/club_news\/3233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/3960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3233"},{"taxonomy":"post_layout","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipswichjets.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/post_layout?post=3233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}