Noosa Pirates crushed by Nambour

Noosa player Corey Dietrich is held up by Nambour defence.

Geoff Potter

THE Nambour Crushers added insult to the Noosa Pirates' injury woes, with a convincing 30-12 win at Pirate Park yesterday.

The Pirates, without their regular halves pairing of Sean Pickup and Dane Campbell, held on valiantly.

However, they were no match for the Des Allen-coached Crushers, who jumped into second spot with the victory.

Noosa had experienced a reversal in fortunes over the past month-and-a-half, after being slow out of the blocks.

However, the team will be without teenage No. 7 Pickup (shoulder) for the next month, and without Campbell for the rest of the year, after he was admitted to hospital last week with problems from a head knock he suffered two weeks ago.

Campbell was at Pirate Park yesterday but has been relieved of his coaching duties by assistant Guy Porter and fullback and fill-in captain Anthony Zipf.

Campbell, a former Newcastle Knight, is not expected back in the coach's box for two to three weeks, as he continues to recuperate.

The stand-in Noosa halves combination of Zane Patrick and Kieran Wherry did not look out of place in first grade, but the Pirates failed to take a number of opportunities.

Allen said the absence of the Pirates' playmakers took none of the shine off the win, as his team continued its march towards the finals.

“It's that time of year, where I think we have to start building,” he said.

“There are four or five blokes in our side at the moment, who are 19 or under.

“I think for the years to come down the track, it's a good learning curve for them.

“It'll get tougher from here on in, there's no doubt in my mind.

“There are no easy games in this competition.

“To come to Noosa, and beat Noosa at Noosa, that's a great result.

“Whether they're down or not, you just have to play who you play. That's all you can do.”

Nambour jumped out to a 10-nil lead through tries to hooker Jacob Madsen and lock Rohan Mollineux.

When Nambour fullback Sam Comerford spilt a Zac Friend grubber in-goal, Friend pounced on the crumbs to open the Pirates' account.

The Crushers pushed the score out to 18-6 when wingers Joseph Meninga and Mat Bowd finished off slick backline movements.

It appeared Noosa replacement Jake Warren had scored near half-time.

However, he was ruled to have made a double-movement.

Patrick gave the Pirates a sniff of hope just after the break, when he hit and spun his way to the line.

However, it was all Nambour from there on.

Meninga and Madsen got their doubles and took the game out of Noosa's hands at 26-12.

Centre Dale Mitchell capped the win in the 65th minute to push the score to 30-12.

While Noosa was in the game for much of the match, the score flattered the home team, with Nambour five-eighth Brodie Oxenham converting just one of his seven shots at goal.

“It would have been nice to kick a few goals,” Allen said.

“What was it, seven tries and one goal? But that's fine, we'll work on that.

“We're scoring plenty of points and we're stopping them.

“I'm pretty happy with our defence today.”

SCOREBOARD

NAMBOUR 30

Jacob Madsen 2, Joe Meninga 2, Dale Mitchell 2, Matt Bowd tries, Brodie Oxenham goal

NOOSA 12

Zane Patrick, Zac Friend tries; Steve McPherson 2 goals