Cottesloe Premier Grade continued their their assault on this year’s championship with a convincing 30 points to 21 victory over Joondalup Brothers. Cottesloe started brightly and took a 10-7 lead after Lewis Pickering charged down a clearance kick and showed tremendous pace to outrun the Joondalup cover for a great individual score. Charl added the conversion and tacked on a couple of penalties proceeding that score. Following this, Sean “Morne” Martin used his deceptive strength to defeat the Joondalup defence for Cottesloe’s second try. Joondalup responded with a well worked score before Zu Abrahams used his footwork to score Cottesloe’s third. Charl converted to make it 27-14 at the break.

In the second half, Joondalup with the breeze at their backs, attempted to chase down Cottesloe’s lead. The truth is though that the Cott defence was completely capable of dealing with every attack they could muster. Yes, they had big boys throughout the forwards and athletes in the backline, but their one dimensional style of play was easily dealt with by the Cottesloe defence. Time and time again, Ali Haining, Zane Hunga or Ethan Cayless just cut them down before they even reached the advantage line and Joondalup just weren’t able to build any momentum. They managed to get inside the Cott 22 on a few occasions but the Cottesloe defence just shut them down consistently. With ten minutes to go, Charl struck an enormous penalty from fifty metres against the breeze to put the score out to 30-14 which was when the Joondalup supporters decided to go in and watch the rest of the All Blacks France match on the clubhouse television. They, like their team, had thrown in the towel. Joondalup managed another try close to the end but the score proved desultory and Cottesloe march on.

There were a number of great performance on show for Cottesloe. Morne was a commander in the middle of the field and Charl yet again was spectacular with the boot, out of hand and off the tee. In the forward pack, Rikki Bentham was rugged at the breakdown and powerful in the set-piece while young Ethan Cayless chopped dozens of big South Africans down. But for this writer, Mikey Walker gets the nod here. He was brave in defence and solid in the scrum. His throwing was spot on in blustery conditions and as a result Cottesloe had the upper hand at the lineout as his opposite number struggled. He even had the arrogance to take on and sidestep Joondalup’s star winger before making a twenty metre break down the field at one point. Cottesloe played this match shorn of a number of starters for a variety of reasons and this result proved that coaches Owen, Kirton and Fowler are building great depth and it surely bodes well for the remainder of the championship. This week Cottesloe welcome fellow top four members UWA to the nest where a victory will make their position in the top four ironclad.