BROTHERS END IVANHOE'S PREMIERSHIP DREAM

COURTESY JACOB GRAMS @ THE CAIRNS POST

BROTHERS got some sort of vengeance for last year’s grand final defeat after ending Ivanhoes’ premiership defence in the most pulsating fashion in the CDRL elimination final.

Halfback Gabriel Tognolini kicked a golden-point field goal in the 85th minute to give his side a 19-18 win after leading 18-0 at half time.

Brothers dominated field position in the opening seven minutes on Sunday but could not crack the Ivanhoes’ goal line defence. Their chance came in the 12th minute when Jonico Hardwick worked his way past Reece Munster to score the opening try.

Brothers began punching holes in the Ivanhoes line and in the 26th minute Evan Child stepped through super-soft defence to put the lead out to 12.

Ivanhoes had their first real chance in broken play just minutes out from half time, but after a sloppy pass second off the ruck, the ball fell to Brothers and Hardwick raced 90m to make it 18-0 at the break.

But Ivanhoes never say die and were all over Brothers in the second half, starting in the 46th minute when Reece Munster crossed off a Whyatt Barnes short ball.

Keelan White burst over the line in the 57th minute but was called back for a forward pass.

Brothers did well to keep them out for as long as they did but consecutive sets took their toll. Ivanhoes lock Sam Mcauley barged over in the 65th minute and by the 72nd minute Brent Oosen did the same and the conversion made it level.

Evan Child made a break down field in the fourth set of extra time and despite a question over Tognolini’s pick-up off a poor pass, he still had time to slot it over the black dot.

Sore Brothers captain Ben Fitzpatrick said it was lucky the club had a field goal muck-around on Friday, but he never thought it would come to that.

“It was just one of those games. We went into halftime and didn’t think that was going to happen at all,” he said.

“We just didn’t play well in that second half.

“The first half was awesome and then we just went away from a few things and too many little mistakes and stuff like that kept them in the game.

“It was definitely good getting over them after last year, yeah, for sure.”

Fitzpatrick said he was looking forward to stirring up the competition in another eliminator this Sunday.

Ivanhoes captain Ben Reed said it was a bitter pill to swallow after his side dug deep to stay in the game.

“We used a lot of energy in the first 20-30 minutes and I think that got us in the end,” he said.

“We did the best we could.

“First half we didn’t rock up. We play our best footy, apparently, coming from behind.

“It’s disappointing to be out first week of the finals but we did that to ourselves by losing games we shouldn’t have earlier in the season.”

Brothers will play Yarrabah in next weekend’s minor semi-final while Mareeba will play Innisfail Brothers in the grand final qualifier.