The Maitland Pickers have grabbed top spot on the Newcastle RL ladder with a comprehensive 44-6 win against Coalfields rival Cessnock Goannas at the Maitland Sportsground.
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Leading 24-6 at half-time the Pickers had expected a Goannas fightback with Cessnock trailing at the break in three of their past four wins.
But in what Pickers coach Matt Lantry described as the side's first "complete 80 minute performance" of the season, Maitland shut out Cessnock in the second half.
However, victory came at a cost with inspirational forward Sam Anderson going off early in the first half with a bicep injury.
Playing at fullback Luke Knight scored a hat-trick and Chad O'Donnell converted all seven Maitland tries and a penalty goal.
Skipper Alex Langbridge was outstanding at hooker, but with every Pickers player contributing, Lantry admitted it was hard to pick a player of the match.
It was all the more impressive with the Pickers still missing star halfback Brock Lamb and fullback Dan Langbridge a late withdrawal with illness.
Knight who had been named at halfback, moved back to fullback and Connor O'Beirne, who has been impressive in his first two games off the bench, started in the halves.
"I've been really happy with our last month of footy. I feel like we've been building nicely," Lantry said.
"Probably today was the first time in the first 10 rounds of footy that we have put together a complete 80 minute performance together,"
"We have a bit of a couple of guys off pretty crook, Toa (Faitotoa Faitotoa) and Alex (Langbridge) were two of those, Chaddy (O'Donnell) had just come back from New Zealand so we only really had Thursday night together to prepare.
"I though Al played a real captain's knock, he controlled the game beautifully on the back of Chaddy and Connor. Knighty was exceptional at the back.
"It was hard to pinpoint one specific player. I thought as a whole it was a really good team performance."
There was plenty of feeling in the match with Pickers back-rower Mitch Cullen and Goannas forwards Sam Apthorpe and Reed Hugo all sinbinned.
Lantry said they had tossed up whether to move Knight or Matt Soper-Lawler to fullback, but in the end they believed Soper-Lawler offered opportunities in attack in the centres
"Knighty did a great job at the back. He just gets busy and challenges the defensive line with his footwork and his speed," he said
"We got our foundations laid by Jimmy (Taylor), Butts (Jayden Butterfield), Tice (Daniel Ticehurst) and Sprucey (Harrison Spruce)."
Lantry said the Pickers had worked hard on limiting the Cessnock's backs time and space with the ball.
He said like the Pickers, the Goannas had missed a number of players with halfback Angus Ernst in particular a big loss.
"Ernst was a big out for them, he controls a lot of their structure. But they still had (Brayden) Musgrove, Honeti Tuah and Huthy (Luke Huth) out of dummy-half is always dangerous. They've just got so much potency across the park," Lantry said.
"It's like any team if you give good players time they will make you pay. So we worked really hard this week on just making sure we were really good with our line speed and our decision making defensively to try and negate some of the strike they've got."
Lantry said Anderson's bicep injury would be assessed during the week, but they were hopeful that the tear was at the more minor level.
"It is probably unlikely he will play next week and hopefully it is nothing too major where he can rip into his rehab and get back sooner rather than later," he said.
Lincoln Smith, who made his return from a syndesmosis injury suffered in round one, played in reserve grade and will be considered for first grade for the Pickers' clash against Western Suburbs next week.
"Linc got through his 70 minutes in reserve grade in clean health. He hasn't had the best of luck with injuries over the past couple of years. He had a significant hamstring tear last year and to go down with syndesmosis this year.
"He is certainly going to be an integral part of our team, we don't want to rush him but he will certainly come into calculations now that Sam has gone down."
The Pickers defeated Cessnock 42-2 in reserve grade and were 34-38 winners against West Wallsend in Open Grade.
Maitland lost 10-4 to competition leaders Lakes United in the Oporto Premiership women's tackle competition.
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
