VRL: North West Wolves blood new talent with opening win

The North West Wolves got their Victorian Rugby League season off to the perfect start at the weekend, running out thumping winners over Waverley.

It was a free flowing and entertaining game with plenty of tries to thrill the crowd at Fregon Reserve, but it was the Wolves who possessed the greater attacking weapons as they stormed to an impressive 50-28 win.

After introducing a lot of players to the side the big question for the Wolves was how well they would work together, but new coach Brett Brody had them well drilled and marshalled them on the field from the number eight position.

While the Wolves were piling on the points the Panthers also began to break through and hit the scoreboard, leading to a high scoring opening half. The Wolves went into the break with a 34-18 lead.

The second half was still fast and aggressive, but the points didn’t flow quite as freely as both sides locked down in the their defence. The Wolves always looked the better side, and with eight try scorers they simply had too many attacking options for the Panthers.

Heath Bassett was the only multiple try scorer, while Tim Christie fired seven shots over the cross bar to get his season off to a strong start.

Brody was pleased with the early season win especially with all the new faces in the side, but knows it’s only a start.

“It was a good start to the season,” Brody said. “We’re setting a platform for the rest of the season, there’s still some things we need to work on though, like being more consistent for the full 80 minutes.”