THE Hunter Wildfires have their hands on the club's first piece of silverware - the Sir Roden Cutler Shield.
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The Wildfires produced their most complete performance of the Shute Shield season to power past Manly 27-19 at Manly Oval on Saturday and take hold of the shield.
The club challenge trophy can only be lost at home.
The Marlins had been unbeaten at Manly Oval, including five successful defences of the shield after wrestling it from Randwick with a 34-21 triumph at Coogee Oval in round three.
"After the game, Manly came over and threw the shield to us," Wildfires coach Scott Coleman said. "We didn't know what it was at the time.
"Whoever holds it at the end of the season, gets their name etched on it.
"We won the Bob Brown Shield against Western Sydney the other week. That is a two-club thing.
"This is our first major silverware and a chance at a bit of history. If we hold it against Randwick next week, we retain it. That is our last home game."
It was a different type of win by the Wildfires. They started on the front foot, defended well for long periods and didn't rely on their rolling maul as the main avenue to the tryline.
Halfback Nick Murray schemed on the edge of the ruck, giant lock Rob Puli'uvea rumbled forward and off loaded, Joe Tamani roamed a bit wider and Connor Winchester and Will Feeney provided field position with long-range kicking games.
"We didn't score any tries from mauls," Coleman said. "We got penalised a couple of times for changing lanes, which I didn't agree with. We found other ways to score.
"We scored a try first phase off a scrum through the backs. Joe Tamani got an intercept and Rob Puli'uvea scored from an inside ball at the ruck, which we identified as an area where we could hurt them.
"I thought our kicking game was better than theirs. That got us a lot of field position.
"Joe is a massive X-factor. We have changed our edge shape to use him. We give him early ball, let him do his thing and filter in behind for an offload."
"Our defence was amazing," he said. "To hold the competition leaders to 19 points. If we can do that each week, we are in with a chance."
The win propelled the Wildfires two spots up the ladder to sixth on 41 points.
Victory over Randwick (eighth on 40 points) at home on Saturday will not only secure the Sir Roden Cutler Shield, it will all but guarantee a play-off spot and chance at the top four. They are away to Easts (37 points) and Gordon (43 points) in the final two rounds
"Randwick and Easts are like 10-point games," Coleman said. "If we win and they don't get anything, it is massive."
The Wildfires will be boosted by the inclusion of former NSW Waratahs hooker Andrew Tuala, who played for Tonga at the Pacific Cup, which finished on Saturday. Tuala can play loosehead prop and Coleman is yet to decide where he will use him
"He will be pretty hard to keep out of the starting team," Coleman said. "It is not as though he is a blow-in. He did five weeks of our pre-season. He is pretty passionate about Newcastle being a genuine force.
"That is what the program is about. I'm not importing someone to take someone's starting spot, he is a genuine local and is invested in it."
James Gardiner
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
