The Greens have come away from a tough game against Black and Whites with a two-point victory in Leeton on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Their first win of the season didn’t go all their way having to fight back in the second half to secure the 26-24 win.
Both sides were coming into the game following losses in the first round and Leeton coach Brent Pike knew what to expect from the Griffith team.
“It was a very physical game,” he said.
“We knew it was going to be tough in the lead-up, so we prepared well for it.”
The home side started the game on the front foot racing out to a good lead, but the visitors came back fighting to take the lead heading into halftime.
The Leeton side refused to lie down as they fought back to take the two-point victory.
The result could have been much different had Black and Whites kicker, Stephen Broome brought his kicking boots as his side outscored the Green five tries to four, however, there were only two successful conversions.
“They outscored us, so we were probably a bit lucky,” he said.
“It was good for us he (Broome) missed the conversions.”
For the Greens, it was the Bayden Scarr show as the fullback scored two of the four Leeton tries while Rhys Wilesmith and Pike, in his 100 first grade game, also got across the line.
Matthew Arnold played the important role with the boot kicking five from five which in the end made all the difference.
Despite the impact of both Arnold and Scarr, Pike felt there were other standouts.
He pointed to the likes of Wilesmith, Jayke Stevenson, Todd Prest, Josh Fisher and Danny Maskill all of whom backed up from the Group 20 representative game against Group 9 the day before.
“They all played between 60-80 minutes the day before,” he said.
“For them to then come out and play another 80 minutes was a great effort.”
Pike was largely pleased with the effort his side showed as a unit.
“We toughed it out and really mustered up in defence,” he said.
“The one thing we will need to work on is our handling which let us down a bit throughout the game.”.