Easts Tigers
1. Gerard McCallum 2. Linc Port 3. Shane Neumann 4. Conor Carey 5. Jarrod McInally 6. Billy Walters 7. Brayden Torpy 8. Robert Rochow 9. Tommy Butterfield 10. Matt Zgrajewski 11. Jake Foster (c) 12. Adam Crear 13. Jack Svendsen 14. Steven Thorpe 15. Charlie Galo 16. Mat Pitman 17. Young Tonumaipe’a 18. James Salter 19. Tekina Vailea 20. Luke Lavelle
Coach: Scott Sipple
Ipswich Jets
1. Wes Conlon 2. Michael Purcell 3. Marion Seve 4. Nemani Valekapa 5. Richard Pandia 6. Chris Ash 7. Dane Phillips (c) 8. Mitch Carpenter 9. Luke Capewell 10. Nat Neale 21. Jesse Roberts 12. Seb Pandia 22. Tyson Lofipo 11. Sam Martin 15. Lachlan Roe 16. Huskie Teatau 17. Josh Seage 13. Ben White
Coach: Ben Walker and Shane Walker
Last time they clashed: Round 7 2017.
EASTS TIGERS 22 (Linc Port, Tommy Butterfield, Billy Walters, Gerard McCallum tries; Billy Walters 3 goals) def IPSWICH JETS 20 (Michael Purcell, Nemani Valekapa, Wes Conlon, Richard Pandia tries; Wes Conlon 2 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.
Overall head to head: Easts 21 Ipswich 20 Drawn 1.
ROUND 18
Something tribal and local about the Tigers v Jets. This will be the best of local footy.
The Jets make the trip to Langlands Park on Sunday for the first time since 2015. The last time the Jets took on the Tigers in Tiger town the result went the way of the Tigers 18-16.
The Jets haven’t beaten the Tigers in the regular season since May 2015. When they came away 32-24 winners with a late Josh Cleeland try sealing the win.
The Jets beat the Tigers in the 2015 finals at Ipswich.
The over-all record is 22 Tigers and 20 to the Jets with one draw.
The Tigers have won the last two games both in Ipswich with the Tigers winning 52-20 in 2016 and 22-20 this season.
Ipswich has won only four of the last 13 between these two clubs.
The Jets’ record at Langlands Park is nine from 20 games with one draw.
The Tigers are currently in fourth spot on 25 points while the Jets are floating around that danger area on 20 just outside the top six.
The Tigers have amassed 410 points in attack compared to the Jets 394 while in defence the Tigers win there again with 342 to the Jets 419.
EASTS TIGERS
The Tigers are coming off a win over the Cutters 34-10. Against the Cutters the Tigers had a mammoth 59% of the ball.
Billy Walters
Walters loves to run with the ball in front of him just waiting for the option he wants to use. Walters sets up on the Tigers’ left hand side and will have options. McCallum will come out the back for him and that then unleashes that left hand side of McInally and Shane Neumann.
If he sets up on the right he runs for Linc Port to have an impact. Walters is a key man for the Jets to stop. Walters had one line break assist and one try assists against the Cutters.
Tommy Butterfield
Butterfield has scored in four of the last five games against the Jets for the Tigers. He loves to run and burrow under some Jets to score. The Jets need to be on high alert because he will not only go direct but drift across the field and find a gap. Butterfield had four tackle breaks against the Cutters.
Jarrod McInally
My old Jets’ mate Jarrod. Can still score, set up and run around guys. He was great against the Cutters, setting up the first try with a great offload and then scoring his own try to seal the win. Jarrod had four tackle breaks and one line break against the Cutters.
IPSWICH JETS
The Jets were great against the Magpies and have now scored 70 points the last two weeks compared to 36 points from Tweed and Magpies.
Against the Magpies the Jets started well, and kept the first half momentum going the Jets ran 450 more meters than the Magpies, running them ragged.
The Magpies missed a huge 57 tackles compared to the Jets 28. You aren’t going to win much missing that many tackles.
Tyson Lofipo and Nat Neale
I’ll group these two together because of the immaculate job they’re doing up front for the Jets. Tyson is playing the best football I can remember him playing and Nat just keeps trucking.
Tyson has carted the ball up for 1893m this season while his mate Nat has contributed 1816m. That’s a combined 3709m or 16% of the Jets’ total meters this season.
Nat is also leading the Jets in defence with 549 tackles with only 18 missed tackles. Nat has topped the Jets tackle count nine times this year from 16 games.
Michael Purcell
Purcell is well on his way to 30 tries this season. He now has 18 and has scored five in the last two weeks.
He also leads the Jets for line breaks with 11. I love watching Purcell sniff around the ruck and that is when he is at his best when he is looking for that ball.
Nemani Valekapa
Game 100 for the King of Kalbar!
Nemani is a super star, I hope that big fend comes out on Sunday. Nemani tore the Magpies to pieces on the weekend with 22 hit ups and 201m.
He leads the Jets this year for metres gained with a huge 2060m that’s from 212 runs and 14 games. That’s an average of 147m per game.
Well it’s pretty simple for the Jets, keep winning, unless Souths drop some games then the Jets just have to win. What a great place to keep it going. Easts is like a football paradise on a sunny day. It will be a great game to watch.
The Tigers will take that huge experienced pack through the middle and the Jets just need to do what they did last week and move the pack around.