Photo courtesy of Sylvia Liber and Game Face Photography
The Gerringong Lions, coached by Rugby League stalwart Mick Cronin, achieved a record 20th Group Seven premiership after defeating the Warilla-Lake South Gorillas 20-6 at Centenary Field on Saturday.
After several cracks at the line, the Lions finally scored in the 20th minute when winger Denver Ford caught the defence off guard and offloaded to fullback Matt Winchester to score under the posts.
Ten minutes later, the Gorillas got their chance to hit back when Blair Grant put through a grubber that bounced up for Chad Lisch to catch and score. Blair converted the try to tie up the game at 6-apiece.
Right before half time and after defending multiple sets on their line, Gerringong were rewarded up the other end when centre Kayne Brennan charged onto an inside pass from Rixon Russell to put his side infront.
Jake Taylor converted to extend the lead 12-6 and then two penalty goals after the break saw this lead increase to ten points.
The match-winner came in the 68th minute when Winchester dummied and then offloaded to Kal Collins, who then passed the ball out wide to five-eighth Tyran Wishart to score.
“It’s always nice to win,” Cronin told Courtney Ward for the South Coast Register upon winning his fifth premiership with the club.
“I always say grand finals are what you play for so from my point of view it’s just as exciting as any other.
“It was a tough game - they played well, and I think we played well too in parts.
“We were a bit panicked in parts; we did try to force passes in not great conditions but in the end our defence was good early but their defence was good too.”
