The Harvey Norman Women in League Round 22 Intrust Super Cup teams have been named for this weekend.
By Michael Nunn
PNG Hunters v Ipswich Jets at National Football Stadium on Saturday, August 5 – 3pm
PNG Hunters
1. Stargroth Amean 2. Bland Abavu 3. Israel Eliab 4. Willie Minoga 5. Butler Morris 6. Silas Gahuna 7. William Mone 8. Wellington Albert 9. Wartovo Puara 10. Brandy Peter 11. David Loko 12. Timothy Lomai 13. Stanton Albert 14. Watson Boas 15. Enock Maki 16. Moses Meninga 17. Rahdly Brawa 19. Nixon Putt 20. Muka Peter Kalu 21. Esau Siune 22. Ase Boas
Coach: Michael Marum
Ipswich Jets
18. Jayden Connors 2. Michael Purcell 3. Marion Seve 4. Nemani Valekapa 5. Richard Pandia 6. Luke Capewell 7. Dane Phillips (c) 16. Huskie Teatau 13. Ben White 10. Nat Neale 11. Josh Seage 12. Seb Pandia 22. Tyson Lofipo 9. Denzel King 14. Hugh Sedger 15. Lachlan Roe 21. Jesse Roberts 8. Mitch Carpenter 17. Tu’u Maori
Coach: Ben Walker and Shane Walker
LAST TIME THEY CLASHED: Round 11 2017
PNG HUNTERS 32 (Wellington Albert, Adex Wera, Israel Eliab, Ase Boas, Bland Abavu tries; Ase Boas 6 goals) def IPSWICH JETS 12 (Dane Phillips, Mitch Carpenter tries; Wes Conlon 2 goals) at North Ipswich Reserve.
Head to Head: PNG Hunters 5 IPSWICH Jets 3.
ROUND 21 2017
Off to PNG the Jets go this week for round 22 and a game against the top of the table Hunters. The Jets and Hunters have clashed eight times; The Hunters lead five to three.
The Jets three wins have come at North Ipswich and Wynnum. Never at the Hunters’ home.
The Jets have lose three times in PNG. In 2014 it was the Hunters winning 40-28, 2015 the Hunters got up 40-22 and then in 2016 it was Hunters 18-16.
The Hunters’ have lost twice at home this year. Which will give the Jets confidence that it is not the unbeatable fortress.
The Hunters are coming of a loss to the Dolphins and a draw in Mackay so their form line isn’t great but they’re still top of the table for a good reason.
While the Jets have had two wins in a row over the Blackhawks and Pride.
The Jets have the Hunters covered by 8 points in attack but the Hunters have a 175 point advantage in defence.
HUNTERS
The Hunters are top of the table but coming off a disappointing two weeks. Against the Dolphins they let them get out to a huge lead and couldn’t get back into the game.
The Hunters had 54% of the ball but that didn’t manifest itself in points. Their defence let them down missing 28 tackles. That’s pretty low but when the opposition misses just 16 you’re going to struggle.
ASE BOAS
Boas is the Hunters’ leading points scorer and the Intrust Super Cup third highest with 166. Ase is the Hunters’ captain and go to man for attack and kicking. Ase kicked six goals and scored a try when the Jets and Hunters played earlier this season.
Boas drives the Hunters with his kicking game, he kicked the ball 12 times for 328 metres against the Dolphins.
NIXON PUTT
Putt has impressed me this season, he runs hard and breaks tackles. Against the Dolphins he had made 110 metres the week earlier against the Cutters he returned a massive 198 metres.
ISRAEL ELIAB
In round 11 Eliab ran the ball 15 times and made an impact every single time. He loves to run the ball. Against the Dolphins last round 112 metres from 15 hit ups. He can pop up anywhere he wants to and often does.
JETS
The Jets dominated the Pride, they had 61% of the ball, made 71 more runs and a huge 620 more metres.
Jets making nine line breaks to three is pretty telling for the Pride and the Pride being asked to make 66 more tackles.
That’s a lot of time without the ball. The Jets utilised that ball by making 10m per set of six than the Pride.
LUKE CAPEWELL
Capewell has been moved to 6 and found a new spring in his step. He’s filled some voids for the Jets this year at hooker but the last two weeks he’s been running like it’s 2010 again.
Capewell ran the ball nine times, one try assist and one line break. He has great vision and a great judge of when to run.
JAYDEN CONNORS
On debut Connors did a great job, he had the hard task of defending on the wing but attacking infield. He nearly scored three tries and did score two.
Two try assists showed his vision and judgement, his backing up for his second try showed Conlon like skills back up the middle and three line break assists showed plenty of skill.
Connors was excellent out of dummy half making half his 100m from there.
LACHLAN ROE
The Roebo Cop had a day out against the Pride, his 160 metres was his best this year.
One line break and two tackle breaks. Roe’s big body will be needed against the Hunters.
The Jets are in good form and have won their last two games while the Hunters are sputtering a bit.
This is a great chance for the Jets to get two points and keep moving forward while having the bye next week then two games at home will be a great way to lead into the finals.
Roe to take it to them up the middle coming off a great running game last week with 160m and Nem to finish it off replicating his mammoth game of 235 metres.
The Jets only missed 22 tackles against the Pride; doing that again would be a good start to our first win in PNG.
All the Jets can do is keep winning.