Miners mauled by confident Cougars

Steele Taylor | 12th July 2010


THE Whitsunday Miners' coach Troy Mundy labelled his side's performance against Capricorn Cougars as “the worst game we've played this year”.



THE Whitsunday Miners' finals hopes disappeared at Ryan Park yesterday with coach Troy Mundy labelling his side's performance against Capricorn Cougars as “the worst game we've played this year”.

The Miners were humbled 5-0 by their arch-rivals at Frenchville, where Whitsunday tumbled to second-last on the Queensland State League ladder.

“It was a bad day at the office – big time,” Mundy said.

“We've got to have a good look at ourselves and that includes me and the coaching staff.”

After competing in a much-hyped trial against A-League outfit North Queensland Fury at Beaconsfield on Thursday night, the Miners were unable to bring any intensity to the round 15 clash.

“We just didn't turn up,” Mundy said.

“We were very lethargic from the start. We had no cohesion and when we could get the ball moving we couldn't find the last pass.”

The hosts wasted no time in troubling the scorers, with Bryce Ruthven snaring the first of his three goals in the third minute.

It proved the only goal in the first half but Ruthven struck in the 48th and 66th minutes to propel his team to a 3-0 lead. Jordan Miller and Tristan Fraser rubbed salt into the Miners' wounds before full-time.

The visitors were hampered by two late changes to their line-up. Key front men Tyson Masters (personal reasons) and Ryan Evetts (thigh) were ruled out and replaced by Joey Civello and Warwick Jansen. Meanwhile, Brett Neeve (groin) and Eddie Skien (hamstring) were injured in the contest, which also saw Daniel Scotton receive his fifth yellow card of the season, resulting in a one-week suspension.

While Mundy said his team provided a listless performance, he did credit hard-working Graham Harvey for trying to limit the damage.

But after disappointing results against lowly Bundaberg, QAS and Capricorn, the Miners' finals hopes have evaporated.

They are destined for a tough encounter with second-placed Brisbane Strikers on home soil on Sunday.
http://www.dailymercury.com.au/story/2010/07/12/miners-mauled-by-confident-cougars/

Bryce bags big hat-trick

Alan Kennedy | 12th July 2010

BRYCE Ruthven does not believe in scoring single goals, he likes the idea of getting them in threes.

Yesterday the Webbers Retravision Cougars proved too good for the visiting Whitsunday Miners, winning the match at Ryan Park 5-0.

Ruthven was dangerous scoring the first three goals to put the game out of reach of the visitors.

To be fair to the Miners it was a young and inexperienced team with Daniel Scotton, Brett Neeve and keeper Brad Moss the only players who have been with the club for a long period.

The Cougars were on top from the kick off with Tristan Fraser racing down the right to beat Moss to the ball only to fire into the side netting.

Many may have thought this was to be another story of near misses but shortly afterwards the Cougars took a lead after Fergus McIntosh ran the ball at the Miners defence, drew players to him and slipped ball right to Ruthven who hammered it home.

The rest of the half was a procession towards the Mackay goal, with Ruthven close on six times.

He was not alone, with Moss having to make diving saves from Anthony Hartnell and McIntosh, while also tipping a Michael Cay corner on to the crossbar.

A one-goal lead at the interval was not the best cushion the Cougars could have had but it proved to be enough.

Early in the second half the ever-dangerous McIntosh again broke down the flank and squared the ball to Ruthven who smashed it home from 10 metres.

Moss was the busiest player on the park and he earned his keep by first saving from McIntosh and then tipping over a shot from Cay after the resulting corner. That gave the Cougars a further corner with Moss pulling off a brilliant reaction save from a glanced Fraser header

Youngster Jordan Miller marked his debut by steering the ball home to make it four, while Fraser broke the offside trap and added the fifth.

Smiling coach Brad Smith said his players had spoken about being better than their position on the ladder, but they needed to prove it.

HYUNDAI QSL

Round 16

Brisbane Strikers 3 def NQ Razorbacks 1.

FNQ Bulls 4 def Bundaberg 1

Sunshine Coast 5 def QAS 1

Cougars 5 (Bryce Ruthven 3, Jordan Miller, Tristan Fraser) def Miners 0.

Points:- Sunshine Coast 43, Strikers 33, Razorbacks 26, Bulls 25, Cougars 14, QAS 14, Miners 13, Bundaberg 9.
http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2010/07/12/bryce-bags-big-hat-trick/