LAVINGTON Panthers star Joey Williams fired a broadside at Kangaroos following the Border club’s 48-10 demolition of the Wagga outfit at Greenfield Park yesterday.
The former NRL player was at his scintillating best, scoring one try and setting up numerous raids on the Roos’ try-line.
But he saved some of his best until after the game, revealing Kangaroos had a chance to sign him at the start of the year but never got back to him, something the star halfback took personally.
“It was a real statement game for us,” Williams said.
“I don’t care what everyone says about us in the press in Wagga, for us, it’s about believing in ourselves, because that’s what you need to do.
“I’d pencilled this in from day one because I owed something to these blokes, I took it a bit personally today and I made sure I wanted to play well against them.
“To be honest, Kangaroos had first shot to sign me this year but they never got back to me either way.
“Their coach was keen to have me but as far as their club and committee, they didn’t give me the time of day to say yes or no.
“All what that tells me is that maybe they had someone a bit better.”
Williams was not only happy to have his measure of payback but was just as pleased the Panthers vaulted past the Wagga club into top spot on points difference after Brothers lost at Tumut.
“It’s just a massive win for us,” Williams said.
“In saying that, the job’s not done. We’ve got to keep ticking games off each week and we’ve got another hard one against Junee next weekend.
“I think my form has been good, I’ll stand up in the big games because I know the team needs me to do that, so I was happy with today’s game but the forwards laid a massive platform for us, and that gives the smaller blokes like myself plenty of room to dart about a little bit.”
The Border club began the game in stunning fashion, with Dion Belford and Tony Pamatangi scoring tries in the opening 10 minutes to open up a 12-0 lead.
Five minutes later, the visitors were further stunned when Andrew West scored in the corner after a strong run.
More pressure from the hosts resulted in a lovely kick from Williams that allowed Andrew Illieff to score the Panthers’ fourth try, with 15 minutes still to play in the first half.
The shell-shocked Kangaroos could only look on as Williams scored just two minutes later after some punishing work from playing-coach Josh Cale and Ricky Hurunui.
It wasn’t until the 38th minute that the visitors finally broke through the Panthers defence, with Paul Heffernan crossing over to make the score 26-4.
Kangaroos scored almost immediately after the restart of the half to send some nerves through the home crowd but the hosts responded with some furious pressure.
The visitors defended admirably but several penalties cost them dearly, as repeated resets enabled Mitch Seaton to make a brilliant solo run and push the lead back to 32-10.
Belford and Illieff each added a second try within minutes to make it 42-10 and the icing on a spectacular afternoon was a Williams touch pass in the 77th minute to Seaton for his double and a resounding victory.
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