NSW Cup: Leiataua grounds Jets with late intercept
The demoted centre came up with the match-winning try at Marrickville Oval.
Ali Leiataua provided another forceful response to his axing from the Warriors’ NRL line-up, leading the club’s NSW Cup side to a second straight nail-biting victory on Saturday.
This time the centre and captain produced the decisive play with six minutes remaining against Newtown Jets, snaffling an intercept and racing 70 metres to snatch a 26-24 victory for the Warriors at Marrickville Oval.
Halfback Jett Cleary, returning to the side after missing last week’s one-point win over Western Suburbs Magpies, muscled his way over for a determined opening four-pointer in the sixth minute.
But the Warriors trailed 18-8 early in the second half after three unanswered Jets tries.
Hooker Braelan Marsh burrowed over from dummy-half to reduce the deficit in the 52nd minute, but Newtown responded almost immediately for 24-12.
A stunning sideline burst by 17-year-old second-row wunderkind Bishop Neal almost set up a stunning long-range try for Haizyn Mellars, who fumbled the offload. The Warriors struck again with 10 minutes left, Morgan Gannon steaming onto a pass one off the ruck and powering over next to the posts.
Leiataua’s burgeoning reputation as one of the game’s best intercept merchants — having already bagged a crucial 50-metre try by the same method at NRL level this year — got another boost when he plucked Jayden Berrell’s pass out of the air with a Jets overlap beckoning.
The 23-year-old left the forlorn Newtown chasers in his wake to level the scores, before Cleary slotted the far-from-simple conversion attempt to secure the defending NSW Cup champs’ third win of the season.
It was a less auspicious day out in Wollongong for the Warriors’ junior teams.
Albert Vete’s struggling Harold Matthews Cup side suffered a 36-6 loss to Illawarra Steelers in their last game of the season.
The 2024-25 champions in the grade, the Warriors under-17s’ only response to the seven-try Steelers onslaught was interchange Koia Cook’s four-pointer in the second half.
Meanwhile, a first-half hat-trick from centre Parekaahu Keepa wasn’t enough to prevent the Warriors from going down to Illawarra 30-22 in the final round of the SG Ball Cup.
The Steelers ran in four tries in the first 15 minutes, before Keepa raced in for his treble in the space of just nine minutes.
Leading just 20-18 at halftime, the Steelers regained the ascendancy with the first two tries of the second stanza. Five-eighth Wiremu Makea narrowed the gap to eight points with a try in the dying stages.
The Warriors’ under-19s finished 13th of 17 teams on the SG Ball ladder with a 2-6 record. The club’s Harold Matthews Cup outfit landed 15th after collecting just one win.
The Warriors’ high-flying Jersey Flegg Cup team takes on Cronulla on Sunday at Ocean Protect Stadium in the curtain-raiser to the NRL clash, but they are missing star duo Harry Inch and Sio Kali.