LEPS OUTLAST BROTHERS

COURTESY RHYS O'NEILL @ THE CAIRNS POST

REDEMPTION-seeking Innisfail have set up a grand final qualifier with Tully following a high-quality 32-14 victory over Brothers last night.

The CDRL’s second and third-placed sides delivered a classic Barlow Park encore seven days after bashing each other at a wet Stan Williams Park in the final regular season fixture.

But it was a very different contest this time around.

A knee injury to Leps captain/coach Ty Williams kept him sidelined from a match that saw both backlines play catch-up following the forwards-dominated encounter of last week.

Of the nine tries, including six in the first half that left the teams locked at 14-14, seven were landed by outside backs and two by bench players.

Innisfail winger Ronald Ambrum benefited the greatest, the unheralded winger’s hat-trick proving the difference.

What impact defeat has on Brothers’ campaign remains to be seen – given they were held scoreless in the game’s second half and suffered back-to-back defeats against their cousin club.

Both sides were reduced to 12 men midway through the second half when Broski Emery-Hunia and Anthony Perkins were handed 10 minutes in the sin bin.

In a curious case of deja vu, Cassowary Coast rivals Tully and Innisfail will meet next Sunday at Barlow Park for the right to be the first team through to the decider.

It was Leps who won this contest 12 months earlier and a Tigers side devoid of gun hooker Aaron Jolley with a broken arm will ensure the minor premiers won’t have an easy shot at revenge.

Innisfail would go on to lose last year’s grand final to Kangaroos, a heartbreak Williams is eager to expunge.