STILL NO SPLITTING BROTHERS AND TULLY

Courtesy Rhys O'Neill @ The Cairns Post

BANGED up but not beaten against Tully, Brothers have ruled out resting key personnel in the coming weeks with an eye on the CDRL finals.
The minor premiership race is no closer to being decided after Saturday night’s 22-22 epic at the Tully Showgrounds.
A Jake Clifford penalty goal right in front with 90 seconds on the clock, after Brothers were judged to be holding down, secured the table-topping deadlock.
In a high-quality encounter that promises much of the same when the playoffs kick off, the hosts skipped away early and led 14-10 at the break.
After a shock loss to Suburbs last start, Chey Bird asked more from his men and they delivered to lead by two until Clifford’s late equaliser.
“It was a pretty fair result, to be honest,” Bird said.
“She was tit-for-tat the whole way.
“We would have loved to win but it was a game that neither side deserved to lose.
“It was a good arm wrestle and both sides will come away pretty confident.
“It was a much-improved showing from last week and our defensive attitude was much better.
“We didn’t have a bad player and everyone stood up in a good team performance. It bodes well moving forward.”
Sadly, former Cowboys hardman Joel Riethmuller limped off early in the second half with a recurrence of a hamstring niggle.
While the backrower will now miss the round 21 clash with a desperate Edmonton, Bird has no intention of resting more troops.
“We’ll have no choice but to rest Joel and he’ll be a big loss,” Bird said.
“But I don’t think we will need to rest too many because over the last few weeks, due to injury and other things, we have rested them not by choice.
“Everyone has had the chance to freshen up a little.
“And we don’t want to be disrespectful to Edmonton and we are still here to win footy games and take momentum in to the finals.”
Bird hailed the Tigers’ performance knowing he may well be confronted with Leon Hallie’s side again in the coming weeks.
“We didn’t learn anything that we didn’t already know,” he said.
“They are a tough team and everyone does their job.
“And if you get loose around the ruck Aaron Jolley has the vision and speed to make you pay.”