THE Fantastic Four might be a fictional superhero team, but on Saturday the four men who made up CSU's spine in the Mid West League Cup major preliminary semi-final showed their real-world talent.
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Fullback Braydon Wicks, the halves pairing of Joe Coady and Lachie Wilson, plus captain Callum Flanagan at hooker was certainly a fantastic four for CSU as they posted a 22-12 win over the Cargo Heelers.
While Cargo held the home ground advantage and had beaten the Mungoes 26-24 there earlier this season, on Saturday defending premiers CSU handed the Heelers just their second loss of 2020.
"Lachie Wilson back in the side was just incredible for us. His direction and calmness was exactly what Joe Coady [five-eighth] had been missing the last couple of weeks," CSU coach Rhys Power said.
"When you put Lachie in there it strengthens up the spine and just directs the side around more.
"We also had Braydon Wicks play fullback for us. He has been playing a bit of 14 and a bit of nine for us the last couple of weeks, but I picked him at fullback and he was a revelation for us, he was unreal, he was dynamite.
"Our spine, it's probably four of the best under 20 footballers I've seen running around together for a long time. It's pretty handy to have those sort of blokes there."
CSU got the match off to a strong start as Cargo allowed Wick's kick-off to bounce over the dead-ball line.
It gifted the Mungoes a line drop out and winger Lachie Balcombe crossed out wide to make it 4-0 within the first minute.
While the Heelers responded to score the next two tries via Jake Powell and Lawrence Frogg to make it 12-4, the Mungoes settled into the contest.
Balcombe crossed again and after Fogg was sin-binned for mouthing off, Flanagan scored next to the sticks with a nice individual effort to give CSU the lead at 16-12.
While the Heelers came at the Mungoes in the final quarter, when CSU centre Blake Schaefer took an intercept deep in his own half and and ran away score it booked his side a spot in the first grand final qualifier.
"It was a bloody entertaining game of football, it was very, very different to the last game we played in Cargo, that's for sure," Power said.
"Our last game in Cargo was the worst game I've seen them play in 10 years. I don't know what it was this time, we trained really well Thursday night and we just came out full of confidence and did everything we wanted to do.
"It went in ebbs and flows. We got into a bit of a tussle and were a bit ordinary for that first quarter, but once we worked into the game, the boys just stuck to the structure.
"We cracked the middle and spread it wide and used our speed. A lot of things stuck, a lot of 50-50 bounces stuck in hands.
"Cargo were good, they did everything they did the first time against us when they beat us. Full credit to them, they're a bloody good football side.
"But I think we were a bit more keen and a bit more composed and our spine stood up a little bit more."
CSU advances to meet undefeated minor premiers Oberon in this Saturday's grand final qualifier while Cargo meets Orange United in the sudden-death semi.
