THE Coffs Harbour Comets continued their pre-season good form with a convincing 58-24 victory over Lismore’s Kyogle Turkeys at Geoff King Oval last Saturday.

The Comets fired from the opening whistle as Pete Uikelotu pressured the Kyogle defence with piercing line breaks which created space for the Comets to move the ball wide into the hands of left wing speedster Billy Griffiths to score the first try.

In the following phase of play the Comets probed down the right flank where Mike Emile penetrated the Kyogle defence through brute force to score the second try.

The Comets continued their dominance into the second half as Billy Griffiths showed his versatility moving from the left wing into the back row where he notched up two more tries to score a hat trick in a stellar performance from the Yorkshireman.

However, it was Kyogle who finished the stronger, scoring two tries in the final quarter which has been a recurring theme in the Comets preseason matches.

Seasoned campaigner and Comets coach, Brandon Costin, wasn’t getting carried away with the preseason results.

“The trial game against Kyogle was just that, a trial game, we experimented with different players in various positions to try and come up with combinations that could take us into the season proper.

“The game served its purpose for players to cement their position for the round one game against Woolgoolga.

“Very unfortunate Liam Dunn was injured during the game, he will be missed,“ said Costin.

After last year’s hiatus, hat trick hero Billy Griffiths is excited to get back to business.

“It’s good to see all the boys buying into our game plan and structure ahead of our first league game next week.

“Kyogle are a strong team, so it was a great opportunity to put into practice everything we have been working on in the preseason.

“With the return of Costo (Brandon Costin) there’s a really good feeling and a lot of excitement around the club at the moment, everyone is keen to get back to business after a very long break due to the 2020 season suspension due to COVID,” said Griffiths.

For assistant coach Miles Fairbank, preseason has been a good yardstick to monitor progress.

“I thought it was a good test to see where we are ahead of next week’s opening game, Kyogle play in the NRRRL competition which is a quality competition.

“They were a big physical side and I thought we handled them pretty well and we put a few points on them, once the boys have a few more hit outs and gain some much needed match fitness we will be hard to beat,” said Fairbank.

The Comets’ first match of the Tooheys New Group 2 competition starts next Sunday 18 April away to Woolgoolga, Bellingen host the Grafton Ghosts and Macksville host the South Grafton Rebels.

 

By David WIGLEY