THE Broulee Dolphins put the cherry on top of their so far perfect season on Saturday with a 48-14 humbling of neighbours the Batemans Bay Boars.
THE Broulee Dolphins put the cherry on top of their so far perfect season on Saturday with a 48-14 humbling of neighbours the Batemans Bay Boars.
The result at Hanging Rock Oval secured a rare clean sweep for Broulee over its archrival – the Dolphins have won all three clashes between the two this year.
However, it didn’t look as though that would be the case on Saturday after Batemans Bay took a sixth-minute lead.
The Boars were awarded back-to-back penalties in an attacking position before Luke Bray took a quick tap and barged his way over the line.
Dave Warner converted in the windy conditions to give the Bay a 7-nil lead.
That lasted all of 10 minutes though, as the Dolphins clicked into gear and hit back in emphatic fashion.
Daniel Hogg opened Broulee’s account when Tom Pritchard’s pass put him in the corner – Pat McMahon with the conversion.
Two minutes later, the Dolphins were 14-7 ahead when McMahon slipped through the Bay defence and scored under the posts.
There was no respite for the home side and Broulee made the most of its momentum to further extend its lead in the 24th minute.
Pritchard got his first of the match when he somehow won the foot race to Chris Prow’s perfectly weighted chip kick for 21-7.
Further tries to Luke Mathie and Hogg before the half-hour mark worsened the Bay’s dilemma.
However, if being 33-7 down was bad then what happened next was disastrous for the Boars.
Centre Shane Chatfield was shown a red card for a code of conduct breach in the 34th minute after he was involved in heated altercations with McMahon and Ian Hall.
The 14-man Bay side survived the rest of the first half but could do nothing to halt the Dolphins’ rampage after the break as Pritchard and Terry Lee extended their buffer to 43-7.
Hall then touched down for a rare try after some determined work from replacement forward Liam O’Sullivan, but McMahon missed all three second-half conversion attempts to bring Broulee’s scoring to an end.
The Boars got some consolation when fullback Ashbee Reid sprinted 90 metres to score a brilliant solo effort 15 minutes from the final whistle.
Despite that, the afternoon, as has much of the season, belonged well and truly to the Dolphins.
“It was very tough and we turned over more ball than I was happy with, but that was largely due to the fact that we were trying things that we don’t normally do,” Broulee coach Ron Rae said.
“We’ve still got a fair bit of improvement to do, but it was a very good win.”
Rae insisted he didn’t see the incident that resulted in Chatfield’s dismissal but praised the Boars for never giving up despite being a man short for the entire second half.