BEATING the state league premiers on a cold night at Bishop Park would mean life is good.
Round 19, 2019 was the last time the Jets had to travel to the north side of Brisbane to play the Devils.
The Devils have it all over the Jets 20 wins from 49 games. Saturday night's clash will be game 50 between the Devils and Jets.
The Jets have won eight, lost 13 and drawn one at Bishop Park.
This will be the Jets second last game for 2022 while the Devils are looking upwards to finals being in sixth spot at the moment.
Like all finals-bound teams, their strength is their forwards.
A spark for the Devils is Brendon Piakura. The head geared weapon is lethal, a lot like the Raiders’ Dean Lance.
The more football he plays the better he is getting.
Since Piakura finished school in 2019, and played 80 minutes against the New Zealand schoolboys in October, he has played 16 Hostplus games and one NRL game. That’s 17 games in three years.
Piakura is a poster child for Covid, denying you a lot of football.
That's also only 1011 minutes of football in three years. Just over 12 games of playing time. The more he plays the better he will be playing.
Piakura missed the grand final last year lasting five minutes in the preliminary final against the Bears. However, a new finals campaign is looming and Piakura will play a part.
When he isn’t using attackers’ ribs for tooth picks he has great conventional passing and skill. If the Jets jam in on him he can slip a nice pass to his unmarked centre or winger.
Against Souths and Easts this year he has been dangerous passing through the line.
The Jets will need to be smart in defending him or his winger will have a night out and not have to do too much.
The Jets are coming off their fourth win of the year. Wynnum were off their game but the Jets took their chances.
Up 26-6 at half time was a thing of rare beauty and five tries was enough. The Jets then defended their way to the win with some stubborn resistance.
Nat Neale, the Jets inspirational captain, played his 82nd and final game at the North Ipswich Reserve.
He topped the tackle count with 49, played 80 minutes, had zero missed tackles and made 181 metres.
That was a standard Neale day at the office that he’s been producing for 178 games.
The Jets defence in the middle was also great.
Keeping that middle safe for the Jets was Jets hooker Rhys Jacks.
Neale and Jacks made 85 tackles and not a single miss.
“It was important to win for two reasons,” Jacks said.
“It was obviously an emotional night and we have talked about winning the enthusiasm and the energy and I think this week was the first time we have won that.
“We kept that going and it’s great to get a win over a top team. You want to win those games against teams around you but now is a chance to win against top teams that are going to play finals.
“The boys are starting to be confident and realise that they can make good decisions under fatigue.
“Norths are the premiers and a great team so now we have to go there and two wins in a row would be nice.”
FORWARDS GOOD FOR THE SOUL
A BEER on a Sunday afternoon with two Ipswich warriors is good for the soul.
Danny McAllister and Brian McCarthy are two 100 game Jets. Between the two men, they played 224 games for Ipswich and scored 44 tries and kicked one goal.
They were fearsome and fearless in everything they did on the field for the Ipswich Jets.
“Who was that one goal against? I thought it was Logan.” McCarthy laughed.
“I can’t even believe you kicked a goal.”
The two old forwards were away.
“It was my last game for the Jets and they gave me an attempt out wide and I have toe poked it over.” McAllister said. “It was a beautiful kick.”
Goalkicking aside, there was great games, coaches and a dreaded grand final loss to the Dolphins.
“I loved being coach by Gilly, you never paid for a beer when you were out with Gilly,” McAllister recalled. “Everyone wanted to shout the great man.”
You can’t have a beer with McCarthy without talking about the 2002 preliminary final against Norths Devils at Briggs Road.
The Jets famous comeback win to make the grand final against the Dolphins is etched in stone.
“I was off the bench and we were down by a lot,” McCarthy recalled.
“Somehow I have come on and scored two tries and we win 29-26.
“I got bitten by an ant too. That was painful.”
One thing both McAllister and McCarthy recall about that game is Ipswich coach Gary Greinke massive prediction.
“I remember he is going on and on about the Norths hooker and how he has to be stopped,” McCarthy said.
“He said he will captain Queensland so pay attention.”
Cam Smith would kick three goals in the tight loss but his mark had been made on the Jets.
We had to talk 2002 grand final and the loss to Dolphins.
“I think the worst thing that happened to us was beating them in the finals and then coming back and beating Norths,” McCarthy said.
“We celebrated like the job was done and thought how good is this.”
On the infamous brawl from the kickoff, McAllister blames Mr McAllister.
“In the final I said to dad that Luke Scott got me a few times and dad said next time do something about it,” McAllister said.
“Dolphins have kicked off and I have taken the first ruck and he’s chopped me so I got up and had a go. It exploded from there.”
The conversation quickly turned to the Jets.
“Ricky Bird, I could watch him all day,” McCarthy said.
“Chris Lawler, mesmerising,” McAllister came back with.
“Reggie Cressbrook.”
“Danny Coburn, Marshall Chalk.”
The names kept coming.
The conversation became serious when it turned to why teams work and teams don’t work.
“I don’t know what the magic sauce is but I know if you aren’t mates if you don’t truly like each other and want to be with each other you’re not going to achieve a thing,” McAllister said.
“I loved those Jets blokes. I wanted to be with them I would always drive back to Ipswich to have a beer with my mates.
“Anyone I played with at the Jets I would like to think if they walked in now we would have a great chat and love to see each other.”
Jets v Norths 2002 final: Ipswich 29 (F. Anderson 2, B. McCarthy 2, M. Chalk tries; R. Cressbrook 3, R. Bird goals; R. Cressbrook field goal) def Norths 26 (S. Tadulala 2, J. Webster, D. Slade, T. McKeough tries; C. Smith 3 goals).