Sport
24 March, 2025
Roosters crow in rival season opener
THE Atherton Roosters have claimed their first competition points after taking down the Mareeba Gladiators in the local derby Round 1 opener.
It was a game of two halves at the Mungalli Creek Dairy Stadium at the weekend, with both teams still in the fight at halftime as Mareeba led 12-10.
Atherton proved too strong in their second half effort, however, defeating their local rivals 30-16.
Atherton struck the first blow with front-rower Matt Whybird going over for a try in the sixth minute.
Mareeba soon fired back with front-rower Ian King scoring the first points in the 23rd minute for the visiting side.
Another try from Mareeba’s Keripo Gutchen-Gela with three minutes to play in the first half put them in the lead at 12-6.
But striking back after an error was Atherton’s Graham Clark Jnr who scored right on half time, bringing the score to 12-10 heading into the break.
Mareeba started the second half positively and added to their lead after a try from winger Navitalai Ratulevu who brought the score to 16-10.
But Atherton immediately went on the prowl, and a try in the 60th minute from fullback Rhy Young got the ball rolling.
From there, Atherton’s winger Shamish O’Quinn went over for two-in-a-row and centre Brad Hammond added the final blow after he scored in the final minute, bringing the final score to 30-16.
Roosters coach Joel Riethmuller was “pleased” to get the result in Round 1.
“I was obviously happy, we’ve still got a lot of work to do but it was pleasing to get the result,” he said.
“One of our KPIs (key performance indicator) is to win the second half. I felt like we were our own worst enemy in the first half, but to their credit, the boys fixed a few of those areas after a chat at halftime and we were able to come away with a win.
“I was also really pleased with our defence and our effort, we had to adapt to a few changes in the side after a couple of little niggly injuries.
“Another one of our KPIs is to not leak more than 16 points, so I was really happy with that as well.”
Mareeba’s co-coach Trent Barnard understood it was a tough game but was happy with how his team competed.
“It was a pretty tough night for us to be honest, not much went our way,” he said.
“We lost our five-eighth to an ankle injury in the first 10 minutes and then later on, we lost one of our front rowers to probably a broken rib.
“So, it was a bit of a scramble on the bench, we only had two left with nearly 50 minutes of footy play. We had our opportunities as well and we made a few errors when we shouldn’t have.
“Atherton are a good side and they throw a lot at you. I think our boys held together pretty well with everything that went against us.
“I think it was pretty good to start off against them because it was really tough and physical. At the end of the day, I’m pretty happy with it all,” he said.
The Atherton Roosters claimed a win in all four of the club’s games over the weekend.
The Roosters Women took down took down Edmonton 36-14, while the Under 19s overpowered Mareeba 26-10 and the Reserve Grade thrashed Mareeba 40-6.
Next week, Atherton will take on the Innisfail Leprechauns in Atherton at 3pm and Mareeba will face up against the Ivanhoe Knights at the Smithfield Sporting Complex also at 3pm.
