Another captivating weekend of Group 7 footy saw big upsets results and massive scorelines that continue to shake up the ladder. Check the full round wrap to see who the standouts were.
Past the halfway mark and into the second half of the year, Group 7 is heating up for 2023.
Round ten brought an interesting dynamic, as teams faced off each other for the second time this season.
Interestingly though, not every team was able to do the league double over their opponents, as certain teams turned first round losses into round 10 wins.
Check out the full wrap of another enthralling round of Group 7 action.
Crucial victory for Superoos
The Jamberoo Superoos have emerged victorious in a crucial middle of the table clash against the Kiama Knights, winning 32-20 in a back-and-forth affair.
Star centre Cameron Cornell was at the heart of everything for the Kiama side, twice assisting his outside winger Matt Morris, first with a neat pass and second with a perfect grubber kick after Cornell broke the Jamberoo line at the halfway line.
Kiama’s defence would ultimately be their downfall against Jamberoo who picked their moments to punish the Knights, first through Dean Watling who burst through a hole between Cornell and Morris to score down the right.
Jayden Morgan would follow this up by powering his way over the line from dummy half, to which second-rower Simon Maslanka saw and replicated the exact same move later on for the Superoos.
The game would continue to seesaw as Travis Barrett-Hancock got the Knights back in it, smashing his way through two defenders and scoring after some nice work in the build-up by halfback Thomas Atkins.
With the game locked at 14-14, Jamberoo would revisit the combo that has been deadly for them this season, being Mark Asquith and Corey Grigg.
Grigg would burst through the line off a short ball from Asquith to make it tries in three game on the trot, before Asquith would get one of his own shortly after, being in the right place to support Jordan Xuereb after the winger escaped down the left flank.
Cameron Cornell would look to inspire his side yet again late on, putting on a massive left foot step to find a hole in the Superoos line and score his sixth try of the season.
But the Superoos would put the game to bed late on through Cameron Brabender, using the ‘If it ain’t broke’ approach and powering over from dummy half for the third time in one game, exposing some defensive frailties of the Knights.
Bulldogs upset league leaders
In the upset of the round, the Milton Ulladulla Bulldogs have stamped their intentions of playing finals footy this season with a massive 27-16 over the Group 7 leaders the Nowra-Bomaderry Jets.
And end result that didn’t look like it would be the case early on, as halfback Clyde Parsons steered the ship for the home side in a productive first half.
Braydon Rumble Walsh opened the scoring for the Jets after Parsons sent a cross-field kick to the right corner for his winger to field and score.
Parsons would then finish off a slick move right off the training ground involving the Jets spine in Adam Quinlan and Dylan Farrell.
Matori Atunsaia would then charge on to a Parsons pass from close range to give the Jets a 16-0 lead at the break.
Whatever coach Andy Lynch said to his side at the break must have been the most inspiring rally of all time, as the Bulldogs came out a different outfit in the second half.
The Bulldogs were playing with desire, first through Cody Roach regaining his own grubber kick, followed up by captain Blake Mackey who finished off a wild play which involved crazy offloads and passes before eventually scoring in the corner.
Mackey was then on hand again with an inspirational try, chasing down a Roach grubber than Jets’ fullback Adam Quinlan thought was going dead, but Mackey was there to dive and plant it down to level the game up.
The decisive moment would come with under 10 minutes on the clock, when the usually reliable Quinlan had another moment to forget as he threw an intercept pass for Bulldogs halfback Travis Wooden to claim and run the length of the field to score.
Cody Roach cemented a Bulldogs buffer with a late field goal, before a late Dwayne Longbottom try against a broken Jets defensive line sealed a massive victory for the travelling Bulldogs.
Wounded Warilla woes continue
The luckless Warilla-Lake South Gorillas slumped to a fourth straight defeat going down 12-0 to the Shellharbour Sharks.
This meant a Sharks double over the Gorillas for season 2023 after their round one victory.
Down on numbers and down on morale, the Gorillas took to social media after the match to highlight the courage showed by their side to put on a good performance despite a further three players added to the injury list.
This was in fact statistically the second best defensive performance the Gorillas have had this season, with just the two tries conceded to the Sharks a much improved defensive display.
The result aligned perfectly with what Shellharbour coach Abed Atallah highlighted as the strengths and weaknesses of his side at the hallway point of the season, being strong in defence and still lacking in attack.
The two tries they did inflict on the Gorillas came courtesy of the boot of influential five-eighth Emanuel Sultana.
Brody Rigg would first score under the posts off a fizzing Sultana grubber kick to open the scoring.
James Ralphs would follow this up shortly after with his third try in two weeks, this time off a Sultana cross-field bomb.
That would be all the scoring as both sides were held scoreless in the second half, giving important points to the Sharks and compounding Warilla woes.
Gerringong bounce back with dominant win
After a disappointing couple of weeks, Gerringong have returned to the winners circle in style with a 54-0 romping of the Berry Shoalhaven Heads Magpies.
Nine tries scored and a perfect nine conversions nailed off the boot of Jake Taylor gave the Lions the biggest margin of victory of the 2023 Group 7 season so far.
It was a case of the Lions picking their moments to slice through the Magpies defensive holes from range, with the likes of Rixon Russell, Danny Wedd and Toby Gumley-Quine all forcing tries after the Lions found pockets of space from around the 20-30m mark.
Winger Jack Walsh cemented his claim to being the fastest man in the competition, leaving the Magpies clutching at thin air as he finished a blitzing weaving run down the right flank in the corner.
Having scored one in the first half, the opposite winger Luke Holland picked up the try of the match, charging on to a Magpies attacking kick and bursting back through the broken line, running 90m and scoring a peach of a solo try.
Isaac Laughton would follow that up with a long range dime of his own, cleaning up a loose pass on the right flank and running 80m untouched to also get his second of the game.
A return to form for the Lions and a day to forget for the Magpies.
Stingrays hold off in-form Eagles
The Stingrays of Shellharbour put last week’s derby loss behind them to get the better of the valiant Albion Park-Oak Flats Eagles 32-16.
An interesting matchup on paper, with the Stingrays suffering back-to-back losses, while the Eagles were coming into the game on the back of their first two wins of the season.
Both teams were going at it on the try scoring front in the first half, with Ben Weatherall picking up a brace for the Stingrays, joined by lock forward Ben Warner, while for the Eagles Kane Skarratts was in the right place at the right time in support to pick up two tries of his own.
Down by just one try coming into the second half, Cooper Tunbridge finished off a nice spreading move by the Eagles involving Jesse Prinsse and Kane Ball to make the game all level.
It was a Weatherall-fest for the Stingrays though, with brother Zaan Weatherall getting a try of his own off a cross-field kick from Jake Horton.
The game was still in the balance with under 10 minutes on the clock and just four points the margin, but a couple of late tries to Jake Horton and Colby Smith ensured the Stingrays would leave with a valuable couple of points to close the gap on the Jets at the top.
Originally published as Big upsets and massive scorelines: Round 10 full wrap, results from Group 7 Rugby League