Central Coast Rugby League: Brotherly connections help Erina to reserve grade win over The Entrance

And on Sunday all that experience and intimate understanding of each other’s skills came to the fore as Erina’s brotherly connections pushed the club to victory in the Central Coast Rugby League reserve grade grand final.

It was a real family affair as the Eagles players celebrated in the moments directly after their 18-10 come-from-behind victory over The Entrance, with brothers Daniel and Tom Peters embracing with their stepbrother Emmet Nicholls on the field, and the Cain brothers – coach Torren and captain and five-eighth Brayden – rejoicing in what was a very special moment for both the club and families alike.

“It’s pretty surreal,” said 20-year-old prop Daniel Peters. “It makes us dig deeper playing with each other, we all just work hard and it pays off in the end.”

It was a sentiment shared by his 18-year-old brother Tom, who starred in the grand final after coming off the bench at hooker.

“There’s nothing easier as a footballer when you have your big brother taking all the carries and running the ball for you, and then you have this guy (Nicholls) running over everyone else – it makes my job easy,” he said.

“It reminds me a bit like backyard footy.”

In fact, it was the second year in a row that the two Peters boys had tasted grand final success together, with the pair both starring in last year’s 26-22 victory in the under-19s grand final, once again against The Entrance.

Perhaps making this year’s victory that little bit sweeter was the fact that they were joined by stepbrother Nicholls, who lined up in the back row.

“It’s easy when you’ve got all of us together,” he said. “Not just us three but you’ve got 13 blokes on the field, we all stick together as a unit and it makes it easy.”

The win was also special for coach Torren Cain, who recorded his second consecutive reserve grade grand final victory.

“I’m ecstatic,” he said. “It didn’t start too well but I guess it doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish and we finished strong. I’m proud of the boys.”

It was also his second-straight premiership with his brother skippering the side from five-eighth.

“He’s old, but he’s not playing like a 38-year-old; he’s playing like he’s one of the 21-year-olds,” laughed the coach.

“He’s my older brother, so that makes it hard for me to give him a wrap. But he’s been playing so well so I will give him a wrap – but I won’t say it to his face.”

There was plenty of banter being thrown around after the win, with Brayden praising his brother Torren in his own roundabout way.

“He doesn’t really tell me what to do. He tells the other boys what to do and I just go out and do my thing,” he laughed.

The quintet played a key role in securing victory in what was a pulsating final against the previously undefeated Tigers.

After a slow start that saw the team go down 10-nil after just 13 minutes following tries to Zane Griffin and Haydn Green, Cain was instrumental in dragging his side back into the contest with his excellent passing and kicking game.

The pressure eventually showed, with a nice cross-field chip kick from halfback Matt Downey five minutes before halftime finding winger Tim Fitzpatrick, who did well to beat a couple of Tigers defenders to scoot over and ensure the Eagles only trailed by four at the break.

Despite kicking the ball out on the full at the beginning of the second half, Erina benefited from a mistake from The Entrance to score just two and a half minutes after the break, with Daniel Peters charging over with a barnstorming run to lock things up at 10-all.

The momentum started to shift, with a big hit from Peters – who was named man of the match for his excellent performance in the middle – causing another error and giving the Eagles another golden opportunity on the Tigers’ line.

And while winger Max Lynn was ruled to have put his foot into touch before passing the ball back to his centre partner Mitchell Deegan to plant the ball down, Erina did take the lead with 20 minutes to go after Cain forced a line-goal dropout with an excellent attacking grubber.

The Entrance kicked the dropout out on the full, which allowed the five-eighth to slot the penalty goal from in front and take a 12-10 lead.

The final quarter of the match went from end to end as both sides pushed for a try, with Tom Peters causing havoc with a series of excellent runs from dummy half.

The Entrance came agonisingly close to retaking the lead with 15 minutes to go after losing the ball over the line. And while they did manage to put the ball down five minutes later, the touch judge ruled that Green’s looping cut-out ball to winger Matt Burraston had gone forward.

The match was still in the balance until about 90 seconds to go, when Nicholls provided a spark that sealed the match for the Eagles.

Making a half break through the tired defence, the backrower offloaded the ball to vice-captain Rylee Walton, who then found Mitchell Deegan in support, with the centre showing enough pace to outrun the chasing Tigers defence and seal a famous grand final victory in front of a big Erina crowd.

The win was particularly satisfying for the Eagles, who not only notched up their second-straight grand final victory over The Entrance, but managed to ruin the Tigers’ previously undefeated season.

“I said we were the underdogs, but I never thought that,” said coach Torren Cain. “I thought we were ready to go and ready to do it. They were undefeated, so the pressure was on them, but we deserved it.”

Grand final results

League tag: The Entrance 16 def Erina 4

Under-19s: The Entrance 28 def Wyong 0

Open grade: Woy Woy 8 def St Edwards 6

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Originally published as Central Coast Rugby League: Brotherly connections help Erina to reserve grade win over The Entrance