The Wentworthville Magpies have come away with a 28-0 victory over the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the Intrust Super Premiership NSW at Ringrose Park on the weekend, and Head Coach Joey Grima said despite the win, the Magpies have plenty of improvements to make.
“That was the most pleasing thing, to keep a score to nil is in it’s own right a quality measure of how we are going about things but to keep a side with the experience, particularly in the forwards, that we did makes it a little bit better,” Grima said.
“However, we still have a lot of work to do and we are still not at the level of where we need to be at this stage.”
Magpies players Honeti Tuha, Daniel Alvaro and Kelepi Tanginoa were named in the NSWRL.com.au Team of the Week for the efforts on the field in Round Two, and Grima had plenty of praise for his players.
“I was impressed with Daniel Alvaro because he was named 18th man and trained all week with the NRL side and to come back with the attitude that he had and deliver what he delivered, certainly talks about the culture at our whole club.” Grima said.
“Just the mentality of getting the job done is a little bit about of what we want to achieve. We want our first grade and fringe players coming back and pushing for positions back in first grade so really glad of his effort that he displayed.”
“Honeti was good and caused the opposition troubles with his footwork. Whilst he is getting fitter, he is also getting better in his game management. “
“Kelepi Tanginoa continued where he left Round One, but still has a bit of work to do with his rugby league awareness.”
Grima has made three changes to his side this week, with fullback Kieren Moss returning from injury and James Hasson returning from suspension replacing Scott Schulte and David Gower, with the latter named in the Eels NRL side whilst captain Cody Nelson moves to hooker.
“Kieran Moss returns from injury and gives us plenty of speed around the ruck. He is an out and out fullback, where Scott Schulte filled in there and did a very good job for us. Mossy gives us a lot of speed around the ruck and gives us some real options with out support,” Grima said.
“James Hasson comes back from suspension and will play in the middle. I am very excited about him because he has trained in the off-season, hasn’t had any games and may be a little bit rusty, but he is ready to play.”
“Cody is our captain is our captain and leader and will no doubt lead us from the front. He has played 80 minutes at the NRL, in a position that is not foreign to him, so his experience, toughness around the middle and leadership will be exactly what we need going into Penrith.”
Grima says the Magpies will need to be ready for the challenge this weekend against the Penrith Panthers, who he believes are the benchmark of the Intrust Super Premiership NSW competition.
“Penrith are a very big and very fast strong side,” Grima said.
“They are the team that the benchmark is set on and are a team that have been particularly competitive in the last two or three seasons."
“They are the benchmark of the competition and very well coached by Steve Georgallis so we will need to be very good to compete with them on the weekend.”
Kick off for the Round Three Wentworthville Magpies clash is at 2:50pm on Saturday 19 March at Pepper Stadium.
