Saints strenghtened their grip on the AFL Cairns minor premiership as the race for fourth spot tightened in another topsy-turvy round of fixtures on Saturday. Last year's runner-up got their hands on more mid-season silverware, comfortably beating Norths to take the inaguaral Mystyle Homes Challenge Cup. While their spot on top is assured, hard-fought wins to South Cairns and Centrals Trinity Bulldogs kept them on level pegging in fourth. They both lie just one win behind third-placed Manunda, who had a bye, and Port Douglas have some catching up to do after another fade-out at the hands of the Cutters. Holloways Beach provided the closest contest though, with the Bulldogs outdoing another valiant effort from Cairns City Lions. Still chasing their first win of the season, the Lions trailed by a solitary major at the halftime break. And despite constantly fighting back as the Bulldogs tried to pull away, they finished 14 points adrift. Bulldogs' ruckman Brent Craighead was still nursing the bruises after a torrid time of it the middle, but the veteran was happy to escape with the points. "It was tough out there", he said."They kept coming back at us and they've improved out of sight in this season alone". "You can see the belief in their play now and I think their new coach (Jason Rowe) has brought them that". Daniel Lewis was again fearlessly mesmerising in the air for Lions, adding five goals to his season tally, and Rodney Tiparui booted four. Craighead praised his young team-mates Shannon Roberts (two goals) and Ryan Schweitzer (five). And he reserved special mention for the in-form Ryan Matthews, who amazingly racked up more than 50 touches in the win. "Ryan is having a freakish season, he's probably been best on ground every week for the last month," Craighead said. "And I'm a big fan of the ticker and effort our young guys are putting in." He said the race for fourth would be tight, considering Port were "still a very good side" despite sitting on two wins from eight starts this season. "You could throw a blanket over us all," Craighead said. "In the last few years we've snuck into fourth and gone no further in finals. "That's what we need to set our sights on doing this season." The bulldogs face a test in North Cairns next weekend, whils South Cairns play Hawks, Saints travel to Port Douglas and Lions have a bye.
Last Modified on 25/09/2012 09:31