Cottesloe premier grade reignited their premiership ambitions by dishing out an impressive beating of Joondalup on a score of 42-17 on Saturday. From the very first minute, it was absolutely apparent that Cottesloe were superior in every department than their northern rivals. Peter Grant and Charl Nieuwenhuis identified early that Joondalup were exposed on the outside and they both looked to utilize width in their play. Zubayr Abrahams struck for the first try when he destroyed his man one on one and skated past the full back to dot down. Five minutes later, intricate play from Peter Grant and Ali Haining opened Joondalup up again and Zu scorched his man once more. Unbelievably, he grabbed his third try ten minutes after that when Jason Badenhorst split the Joondalup midfield wide open and like a good hungry predator he appeared on Jason’s shoulder and skipped his way to the line. Joondalup were rattled at this stage but did manage to respond with a try through good work from Western Force player Brynard Stander but Cottesloe responded immediately. A powerful scrum in the right corner allowed young number eight Ethan Cayless to smash his way over from close in and the score at half time was 29 points to 10.

In the second half, coaches Fowler, Owen and Kirton elected to run the bench to protect some of the players who had taken knocks, but it didn’t really slow the momentum as Charl pummelled his way over for another try. Joondalup didn’t completely capitulate though and managed to snatch another score but they never looked like clawing back the Cottesloe lead. Charl was unerring off the tee and a couple of penalties ensured that Cottesloe ran out handy 25 point winners.

This result moves Cottesloe back into fourth spot but more importantly it puts a six point gap between Cottesloe and fifth placed Kalamunda. This was arguably one of the finest displays of the year, particularly in the execution of their attacking plays. Charl and Peter Grant were superb with their handling and exploited many gaps in the Joondalup defence. Kaisa Reidy and Ricki Bentham dominated Joondalup at scrum time throughout. For this writer though, you can’t look past Zu Abrahams for the best player. His blistering speed and surprising strength with ball in hand terrified the Joondalup defence and to score three tries in a match of this importance must be acknowledged. Cottesloe travel to the Bull Pen to face Kalamunda and any sort of result at all will ensure Cottesloe return to knock out football since their last appearance in 2016.

Over and out,
CB