Burleigh win battle in the bush

Driving into the town of Chinchilla, nearly four hours west of Brisbane, the tallest structures in the city are the giant grain silos on the right hand side of the main road.

Tucked behind those silos is the quaint Bulldogs Park, a well-maintained country footy ground that is the centre of sporting excellence for the district - and where Wynnum Manly Seagulls skipper Sam Scarlett plied his trade as a youngster.

The clubhouse walls are adorned with the past and present best players in the district with an Australian representative among them.

Today this well-maintained ground hosted the Wynnum Manly Seagulls squaring off against their most recent nemesis, the Burleigh Bears.

Weather was perfect for football with warm winter sunshine lapping the backs of a very healthy crowd of locals who came to watch the boys from the big smoke fight it out.

For the first 20 minutes, the crowd was treated to a relatively dower defensive battle between the two. With just a penalty goal kicked by Jack Campagnolo in the sixth minute separating the two teams.

Right on 25 minutes, Burleigh's Andre Niko crashed over from out wide for a try which was not converted and the Bears were up 4 -2.

The toughness of the defensive battle was evident when Aaron Rockley performed a crunching tackle which left him staggering back into the defence line, only to be replaced for a HIA assessment. He would later return to the field.

Then just before half-time, Max Elliot who had come off second best in a physical challenge, returned to the field after his own HIA assessment. He took the ball from a crisp Jayden Berrell pass and crashed over for a try in the 41st minute for a try and Campagnolo duly slotted the extra points and Wynnum were up 8-4.

Not to be out done, Burleigh were in again from a Kurtis Rowe try and Josh Rogers slotted the extra points and Burleigh were ahead 10-8 after 48 minutes and would never be headed again in the came.

Nine minutes later Andre scored close to the posts and Rogers converted and the Bears were up 16-8.

Two minutes later, Burleigh were in again after some silly mistakes from Wynnum gave possession to Burleigh and Sami Sauiluma crashed over out wide and Burleigh were up 20-8.