Round 15 Game Wrap & Gallery

Story by MICHAEL THOMPSON, Sports reporter, Townsville Bulletin

 

Photo (C) Alix Sweeney 2016

 

TOWNSVILLE Blackhawks coach says there will be no “crisis talks” despite the Blackhawks suffering a club-first two consecutive defeats following Saturday’s 24-12 loss to Ipswich.

The Blackhawks again struggled to deliver in attack despite producing two impressive first-half tries, with Johnathan Reuben chasing down a perfectly placed Michael Parker-Walshe kick to score the Blackhawks first, and Delouise Hoeter leaping high for a Matty Bowen high ball soon after.

But Ipswich were better, most notably after halftime when they chased down the Blackhawks 12-10 lead with their unorthodox style of play to post an unanswered double through winger Michael Purcell, adding to the early first-half tries posted by Ben White and Nemani Valekapa.

The Blackhawks have also relinquished their place at the top of the Intrust Super Cup ladder for the first time, with Burleigh’s win over Tweed-Heads yesterday putting them into first.

“We haven’t lost two games before, this year or last year, so it’s going to show our character and show how resilient we want to be as a group,” Woolf said.

“How we bounce back is going to say a lot about us.

“There’s no point in us sitting there and having a big crisis meeting tonight, that’s not going to help us, and we’re not at a crisis point either.

“There’s eight games of footy to go and if we get back and win next week it’s all forgotten about, and win two in a row it’s even more forgotten about.

“We’re not at that stage where we need to have crisis meetings or try to figure out what’s going on, we just need to get back to being better.’

Once again it was Ipswich’s willingness to search for space and throw the ball around on any play that appeared to have the Blackhawks frazzled.

Time and again the 12th placed Jets would finds gaps in the Blackhawks defence, highlighted by the two early tries that White and Valekapa got out wide.

But the weight of territory and possession then shifted to the Blackhawks, who converted a promising 10-minute passage into the two tries scored by Reuben and Hoeter.

The Jets started the second half as they did the first, however, with Purcell getting his first about five minutes after the break, and the Blackhawks could not click into gear, with its talented spine again struggling for cohesion as it did in the previous weekend’s defeat to Redcliffe.