Northern Pride will consider handing Pone Tongia a recall for the Hostplus Cup clash with Souths Logan despite Feao Tongia’s best performance since joining the club.
NRL: After narrowly missing out to the Dolphins, the Brisbane Tigers have announced their bid to become the 18th team in the league.
Feao was in hot form for the Pride in last week’s 32-30 win against the Western Clydesdales, making 136m from just 11 runs, which included 56 post-contact metres, and crossed for a try.
But he also fell foul of the officials, spending 10 minutes in the sin bin for an off-the-ball hit in which he hammered a Clydesdale on suspicion.
Pride coach Ty Williams backed his man for the split-second decision, but lamented his sin bin stint.
Feao Tongia took the early plea for a one-game ban. Picture: Brendan Radke
“I can understand the decision there but like Feao talked to me afterwards, he was very remorseful,” Williams said.
“I said ‘if you don’t make that tackle and they hit that short break and he goes through, I’m up you pretty hard’. He made the right decision, it just a really good play by Toowoomba.
“He had his best game for us. He bent the line – the reason why we got him here was that he can make that 25 to 30 metre carry from the kick-off, and got rewarded for a really good try.”
Feao was slapped with a grade two dangerous contact charge which carried a one-week suspension with the early guilty plea, or two weeks if the club challenged and lost.
Pone Tongia was in good touch for Tully against Innisfail last week. Picture: Brendan Radke
“I thought it was his best performance for the Pride,” Williams said.
“It’s important, but even if he gets suspended we need to get the high reps we require to make sure he’s ready to play the Hunters.
“That’s something we need to consider, if we do fight it and we don’t win, it gets graded at two weeks.
“Just get their understanding knowing how important the next few weeks are.”
His suspension opens the door for brother Pone to win back a spot in Williams’ 17 for the clash with the Magpies.
Pone had one of his best outings of the season for Tully in the Tigers’ gripping 32-18 loss to Innisfail Leprechauns in the FNQRL’s Cassowary Coast derby last week.
Brothers Pone and Feao Tongia joined the Northern Pride at the start of the year. Picture: Brendan Radke
Tully coaches Col Wilkie and Cameron Miller played Pone through the middle with great success, as he got through plenty of work and created opportunities with his line-bending runs.
He is one of two players in consideration for a recall.
The other option is Taniela Tau’ufo’ou, who has been a consistently strong performer at Brothers over the past two seasons.
The second-rower was at his consistent best during his 60-odd minutes of game time in Brothers’ 48-14 win against Southern Suburbs on Sunday, and has been in the Pride’s extended squad for most of the past few weeks.
Tully Tigers have the bye this week, which could tilt the odds in Pone’s favour ever so slightly with a clash with the Hunters on the horizon.
“Nela was very good on Sunday against Suburbs, played 60-odd minutes on the split,” Williams said.
“I thought Pone played his best game for Tully, it’s the first time Cam and Colin moved him into the middle and he was fairly effective.”
The Pride’s clash with Souths Logan kicks off at 6pm.
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