Blake Wilson hat trick grounds the Jets!

By Jordan Herbert

Round one of the Hasting Deering Colts season finally kicked off on Saturday at Sunshine Coast Stadium as the Sunshine Coast Falcons took on the dangerous Ipswich Jets.

Hot and sunny weather made perfect conditions for Saturday afternoon footy and both teams made the most of it in a try for try thriller showing what they are made of for the 2021 season.

But it was the away team that struck first against a broken defence line which saw the Jets hooker Lochlan Turnbull dashing through to open the scoring for the afternoon. 6 – 0 to the Jets.

It wasn’t long before the home team struck back with a four pointer of their own, with scintillating fullback Blake Wilson stepping through the Ipswich line leaving the defence helpless and locking the score up at six points all thanks to a Jai Smoothy conversion.

The Falcons fullback, who has trained the pre-season with the Intrust Super Cup squad, was proving hard to stop and went over for his second of the afternoon in the 21st minute and a successful conversion by Jai Smoothy gave the Falcons the lead for the first time 12-6.

Penalties and poor defence by Ipswich saw the Falcons winger Zac Miles go over for their third try of the match just six minutes before halftime with Smoothy making it 3 from 3 conversions to make it 18 – 6.

But the Jets weren’t finished scoring in this half, a second for their hooker in the 37th minute meant the Falcons would go into the halftime break leading 18-12.

After the break the Ipswich Jets came out firing with a try to Mitch Harsant just two minutes into the second half to have the scores all locked up at 18 points all.

Both teams were keeping the scoreboard busy with Matt Baker crossing 5 minutes later, Ipswich then crossed 4 minutes later through Nick Merlehan before Blake Wilson crossed for his hat trick in the 56th minute to make it 30 all. The kickers couldn’t miss with 100% conversion rates for both teams.

Falcons big lock Mat Baker then crashed over to put his team in the lead 36-30 with 13 minutes remaining.

The scoreboard attendant surprisingly wasn’t troubled again until a penalty deep in the Ipswich half would see Falcons hooker Jai Smoothy line up for a penalty goal just three minutes before the full-time siren. Smoothy’s perfect kicking rate didn’t fail him and he put the Falcons in front 38 – 30 which was the full time score.

A perfect goal kicking display from both goal kickers with Jai Smoothy kicking 7/7 and Lochlan Turnbull 5/5.

A perfect way to start to the season for Coach Jamie Vogler and his players who will now travel to Toowoomba next weekend to take on the Western Mustangs.