SYDNEY NORTHERN BEACHES DOMINANT FORCE AT NSW INTER-BRANCH

Sydney Northern Beaches, December 17: Spurred on by the amazing talents of Manly's Naomi Flood and with the words of Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler ringing in their ears, a determined Sydney Northern Beaches Branch team romped away with NSW Inter-Branch Surf Life Saving Championship trophy at Catherine Hill Bay on the weekend.

The pride of peninsula surf lifesaving scored an emphatic victory, amassing 1,334.5 points to easily account for arch rivals Sydney (1,344.5) by 35.5 points with Central Coast (1,269.5) 65 points behind in third place. Ian Hanson Reports

Flood, a dominant force in national and international competition, showed all her skills, her team work and her fitness to chalk up nine victories - including the open iron woman, surf race, board race and single ski final as well as playing her part in the iron woman teams, the open female rescue-tube-rescue, the coveted lifesaver relay, taplin relay and the board teams.

It was one of the single most dominant performances ever seen at an Inter-Branch competition and set the team up for a triumphant weekend.

She combined in the teams events with her Manly team mate Rebecca Keelan and Freshwater's Alisha Miller, who also took out the under 19 iron woman and board finals and the under 19 board rescue with Rachael Crerar.

Collaroy's Kendrick Louis again stamped his authority on the event, winning the under 19 iron man and single ski and also combining with brother Bart to win the under 19 board rescue before taking a third place to under 19 Coolangatta Gold winner Hayden White in the board final.

The team went to the Hunter region location with the spirit of Manly's 40-nil NRL grand final victory very much on their minds after a stirring motivational speech from Eagles coach Des Hasler.

The maestro who steered the Eagles to that memorable premiership victory in September spoke to the team on the eve of the Championships, impressing upon each and every one of the team they had to take things "minute by minute."

Sydney Northern Beaches head coach Scott Jones said Hasler's words rang true on the final day of the competition.

"Des got them to concentrate on the little things, the things you can control and not to worry about the final result and it worked," said Jones.

"We held a good lead after the first day's competition but on day two I noticed how relaxed the athletes were and they were all yelling ‘minute-by-minute' to each other before their races - I knew then we were in for something special.

"The team work displayed by the entire squad was amazing and they were certainly a credit to the Sydney Northern Beaches Branch.

"There is no doubt that that peninsula beaches are in the very best of hands and our future is very exciting."

The two-day event could not have had two more contrasting sets of conditions with day one dishing up a mix of driving rain, a one metre shore dump on a dropping tide with back markers having a field day, while Sunday saw calmer, more even conditions.

The South Curl Curl women and the Mona Vale men both proved to be unstoppable, both claiming victories in the respective open boat finals.

But the surf conditions certainly didn't bother the Sydney Northern Beaches sprinters with veteran coach Bobby Langbein's squad proving to be the dominant force on the sand, winning both the senior and junior all age beach relays.

North Curl Curl's Michael Kember and Queenscliff's Laura Shorter claimed the prestigious open men's and women's beach sprint crowns while Mona Vale's Thomas Trbojevic (under 12) and Collaroy's Baden Donegal (under 17) both won the beach sprint-flags double.

Other beach victories also went to Newport's Jake Lynch (under 19 beach sprint), Manly's Robbie Jones (under 15 beach sprint) and Queenscliff's Jamie-Lee Britt (under 19 beach flags).

The Branch also dominated the under 13 surf events with Warriewood's Jake Reese winning the under 13 iron man, Freshwater's Joey Lussick the under 13 board with the pair combing to win the under 13 surf teams.

In the women's events it was Freshwater pair Georgia Miller and Nicola Stirton who won the under 13 board rescue and iron woman teams.

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