A new American National Rugby League champion has been crowned and it is the New Haven Warriors.
The club, which is just three years old, beat the league’s powerhouse team Aston Bulls 50-18 in Saturday’s Grand Final at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey.
The Bulls have appeared in each of the AMNRL’s 11 Grand Finals to date and went into the 2008 version as the favorites, while the New Haven side had other ideas and led 20-12 at halftime.
The Warriors were on a mission all season long, and as was the case since the opening round of the competition, they were led admirably by Grand Final MVP Matt Doeg. The hooker from the Gold Coast in Australia scored four of his team’s nine tries and was head and shoulders above everyone else on both offense and defense.
Doeg, the Warriors’ player/coach, spotted gap after gap from the dummy half position and made the Bulls pay dearly on numerous occasions when he darted through openings to either set sail down field himself or dish to a support player, and there were many of them.
Fellow Aussie Luke Carr also had a big impact on the game by scoring two tries and going 7/10 with shots at goal, including an attempted drop goal late in the piece.
Aston scored first within the opening stages of the contest and looked to be on the way to taking control when the wheels suddenly became shaky. New Haven deserves credit for that because of their hard-hitting tackles and a couple of stoic goal line stands in which the Bulls were twice denied tries in the corner.
Derrick Roma, Jason Giroux, and Ewan Robinson also got on the score sheet for the Warriors. Robinson’s 50-meter solo effort late in the game put an exclamation mark on proceedings.
For Aston, which has now lost the last three consecutive Grand Finals, captain Greg Stelluti tried hard, particularly in the second half, and was rewarded for his efforts with one of his side’s three tries. Other try-scorers included Louis Tulio and Matt Stauffer, while Blair Wards was a perfect 3/3 on conversions and earned his team’s MVP award.
Aston’s halves Conway Maraki and John Grace were among their team’s standouts on the day with solid performances, while Mike Mertz also played well when he came off the bench. Their big man Ed Woodbridge was more than a handful on offense and almost always made big gains every time he touched the ball.
But the day belonged to New Haven and the likes of Salesi Tongamoa and skipper Siose Muliumu, who between them caused Aston major headaches for the duration.
“It was good that the boys went out and executed the game plan on the day and allowed players like myself, Siose and Luke to capitalize,” New Haven’s Matt Doeg told ARN.
“Full credit to our forwards. As you know, games of rugby league are won through the middle of the ruck and that’s where we got them.”
From Aston’s standpoint, aside from the opening 10 minutes or so, they were always playing catch up football, and because of that, they were always going to struggle.
“Hats off to them, they played a fantastic game, quick ball and just had us on our heels the entire game,” Aston captain Greg Stelluti told ARN. “Their hooker and 6-7 combo, they really were just going all game long and had us going backwards and we just couldn’t put it together.”
New Haven’s victory in the Grand Final capped a remarkable season in which they finished with a perfect record of 10-0 and did to the Bulls what they have been accustomed to doing to other teams.
New Haven Warriors 50
Tries: Doeg (4), Carr (2), Roma, Giroux, Robinson
Cons: Carr 7/9
1 Keith Nelson 2 Conor Heneghan 3 Justin Deveau 4 Derrick Roma 5 Ed Reed 6 Siose Muliumu (Capt) 7 Luke Carr 8 Amosa Lio 9 Matt Doeg 10 Matthew Callan 11 Jason Giroux 12 Salesi Tongamoa 13 Ewan Robinson
Interchange: 14 James Brakewood 15 Jonathan Paredes 16 Lee Bartlett 17 Chris Mrozek 18 Jonpaul Davis 19 Brian Schacht
Aston Bulls 18
Tries: Tulio, Stelluti, Stauffer
Cons: Wards 3/3
1 Louis Tulio 2 Gene Giallombardo, 3 Liam Mulhall, 4 Geoff Ashton, 5 Ric Dortone, 6 Conway Maraki, 7 John Grace 8 Ed Woodbridge 9 Jon Rourke 10 Bryan Confer 11 Blair Wards 23 Chris Craig 13 Greg Stelluti
Interchange: 14 Ryan Coleman 12 Matt Stauufer 22 Mike Mertz 17 Darren Lewis 18 Matt Shannon 19 Kevin Messner
