This Sunday, Intrust Super Cup premiers the Luxury Paints Ipswich Jets travel to ANZ Stadium in Sydney to take on the NSW Cup winners, the Newcastle Knights as part of NRL grand final day.
Ipswich Jets v Newcastle Knights at ANZ Stadium on Sunday, October 4 – 2.40pm (Queensland time) / 3.40pm (NSW Daylight Saving time)
Ipswich Jets:1. Carlin Anderson 2. Marmin Barba 3. Liam Capewell 4. Nemani Valekapa 5. Richard Pandia 6. Josh Cleeland 7. Dane Phillips 8. Josh Seage 9. Matt Parcell 10. Rod Griffin 11. Sam Martin 12. Kurt Capewell 13. Keiron Lander (c) 14. Landon Hayes 15. Kurtis Lingwoodock 16. Billy McConnachie 22. Fakahoko Teutau 17. Peter Whittaker 18. Haydan Lipp 19. Chris Walker
Coaches: Ben and Shane Walker
Newcastle Knights:1. Jake Mamo 2. Honeti Tuha 3. Kerrod Holland 4. Joseph Tapine 5. Ken Tofilau 6. Carlos Tuimavave 7. Jaelen Feeney 8. Damian Sironen 9. Danny Levi 10. Sam Mataora 11. Lachlan Fitzgibbon 12. Jacob Saifiti 13. Clint Newton (c) 14. George Ndaira 15. Marvin Filipo 16. Michael Steele 17. Josh King 18. Luke Yates 27. Tama Koopu
Coach: Matt Lantry
Referee: Matt Noyen | Touch Judges: Rohan Best and Belinda Sleeman
The Newcastle Knights won through to the NRL Grand Final Day and the State Championship after beating the Wyong Roos last week, which means that the Knights will challenge the Intrust Super Cup Champions the Ipswich Jets.
NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 20 (H Tuha 3, K Holland tries; K Holland 2 goals) defeat WYONG ROOS 10 (N Smith 2 tries; T Cornish goal) at Parramatta Stadium.
The Knights have built up great momentum heading into the game as they finished in 7th place after the regular season and in the finals have eliminated sixth-placed Manly, third-placed Penrith and minor premiers Mounties before beating the second-placed Roos on Sunday.
Wyong had won five in a row and 10 of their previous 11 games heading into the grand final which made them huge favourites but made too many handling errors to build any pressure on the Knights and left their run too late.
Wyong had three late changes while the Knights went into the game with the same 17 that defeated Mounties the week before.
The Knights left side attack was lethal with winger Honeti Tuha scoring a hat-trick of tries for the Knights and his left-edge centre partner Kerrod Holland scoring a try and kicking two sideline conversions.
The Knights finished the regular season with 11 wins from 25 games, while the Jets finished third with 16 wins from 25 games.
The Jets scored a massive 148 points more than the Knights while in defence the Knights let in 40 more points.
During the finals the Jets have scored an incredible 158 points through 28 tries while the Knights have scored 19 tries and 139 points.
The Knights have the edge in experience with Clint Newton having played over 200 NRL games.
Knights to watch
Honeti Tuha was man of the match in the New South Wales Cup Grand Final which isn’t the norm for a winger. Tuha is also the Knights leading try scorer in 2015.
Kerrod Holland is Honeti Tuha left hand mate and also scored a try in the Grand Final when he backed up Jaelen Feeney and got over in the corner. Holland also made the New South Wales Cup team of the year.
Both teams will be playing for a retiring captain, with the Knights doing their best to see captain and NRL veteran Clint Newton retire in style with a premiership and State Championship, while the Jets will be playing to see captain Keiron Lander finishes in style.
The Jets will be aiming for a club record equalling seven wins in a row. The Jets won seven in a row in 2013 winning between rounds 6 to 13, (Round 10 was a bye).
The Jets haven’t lost a game since they lost to Townsville in round 23 on 15 August.
The Jets beat Townsville 32-20 in the Intrust Super Cup Grand Final to win through to the State Championship last Sunday.
Both teams have great momentum.
IPSWICH JETS 32 (Carlin Anderson, Marmin Barba, Nemani Valekapa, Dane Phillips, Matt Parcell, Keiron Lander tries; Carlin Anderson 2, Marmin Barba, Keiron Lander goals) def TOWNSVILLE BLACKHAWKS 20 (Jahrome Hughes, Zac Santo, Tom Humble, Robert Lui tries; Robert Lui 2 goals) at Suncorp Stadium
The Jets started a bit slowly in the Grand Final with a nervous first period of play that saw Townsville take the lead and assert their physical authority.
The Jets played nervous, but like the batsman that gets his first Test 100 out of the way I think the Jets may be about to relax and play football which could be bad news for the Knights.
Once the Jets clicked and found their rhythm they put together tries and played football at the bigger Blackhawks that they couldn’t handle.
The Knights are a similar big side and their goal will be the same, to run them around and off their feet.
Jets to watch
Does anyone want to suggest that Marmin Barba won’t add to his 30 tries this year? Barba has added new skills this year, once purely a speed man that could burn guys off and score tries, now he still does that but he also kicks in field for guys screaming through the centre, he also threw a great overhead pass for Dane Phillips’ try in the Grand Final and as such is no longer just a speedy finisher.
When Matt Parcell scored in the Grand Final with seconds to go he went past Ryan Cullen, Liam Georgetown and Rod Jenson all on 10 tries and set the bar on 11 for most tries in Intrust Super Cup finals history. In the Grand Final Parcell contributed 13 hit ups, 142 metres, 2 off-loads, 1 line break and 42 tackles. After 75 games and 29 tries this will be Matt Parcell’s last game for the Jets.
Billy McConnachie will become the Ipswich Jets’ John Sattler. McConnachie was man of the match and is now a Grand Final legend that lives forever with 68 minutes, 24 runs, 192 metres and 35 tackles. His stats for pure old school toughness, and don’t run at me football, are well above any of those.
Richard Pandia had his best ever game in the Grand Final. Pandia threw his body around with a recklessness that defies belief. He took hard runs and put his head in places people wouldn’t put their feet.
Pandia did plenty of hard work coming in off his wing 26 times and gaining 175 metres of pure territorial gold for the Jets.
In a game where the Jets were down two players his runs can’t be underestimated.
The Jets might be without Rod Griffin who was charged with dangerous contact from the Grand Final. Griffin will fight in the charge in an attempt to play Sunday.
While Kurt Capewell, Chris Walker and Josh Seage are all injured and will be required to prove their fitness.
The Jets have named a 19 man squad to travel to Sydney on Saturday morning.
Jets’ Milestones.
· Carlin Anderson needs 12 points for 300 points for the Jets.
· Carlin Anderson needs 25 points to have Jets’ record of 265 points in a season.
· Josh Cleeland will play his 50 game for the Jets.
· Keiron Lander will play his 115th game (Jets) and go past Luke Walker to be the 7th most capped Jet of all time.
· Ben and Shane Walker need one win for their 75th win as Jets coach.
Final ISC stats for the 2015 season.
· Most Tackles: Matt Parcell 757 with 18 misses.
· Most Runs: Nemani Valekapa 403
· Most Line Breaks: Marmin Barba 29
· Most Metres: Nemani Valekapa 4295
· Most Tries: Marmin Barba 30
· Most Off-loads: Rod Griffin 93