With the Tigers regarded as premiership heavyweights, the Match of the Round had all the billing for a huge crowd to witness some of the best rugby league seen on the coast for some time.

One notable Marlins fan Maurie Raper ( brother of immortal John Raper) was on hand for the day cheering the Marlins on and also was a guest commentator for the 2WAY FM 103.9 live broadcast of the big game.

Marlins fullback Owen Blair jnr had another brilliant game with a three try haul and the man of the match honours in a starring role that had the huge Marlins fans on their feet throughout. 

The Marlins got off to the worst start with a drop ball off the kick off.

The Tigers had the Marlins pinned in their territory from the start but were unable to capitalise on their opponents handling errors.

Paul Owens got the Marlins on the board in the 5th minute, burrowing through the Tigers line to get a 6-0 lead with the conversion from Owen Blair Jnr. 

The two teams slogged it out with entertaining football until Blair Jnr scored the first of his three tries in the 27th minute with a brilliant kick and chase from his own grubber to stretch the lead to 10-0.

The next 10 minutes of play Comboyne took control of the match with the Marlins guilty of poor ball control.

Comboyne centre Matt Temple scored to reduce the deficient 10-6 with a conversion from Shawn Madley.

With the game running from end to end, Marlins centre Darrell Thomson scooted through the Tigers line to score out wide to give the Marlins a buffer of 14–6 but this only spurred on the Tigers who took the game to the Marlins and were rewarded in the 35th minute of play with a try to Chris Philipson.

Madley converted the tigers try to have the Tigers right in the Match at 14-12 Marlins way.

With three minutes to half time the Tigers momentum seemed to have run out and the Marlins finished the first half stronger with two tries late in the half to Marlins Sam Rouse and Blair notching up his second for the day. The Marlins went to the break leading 22-12

With the commencement of the second half Marlins new recruit Ruben Dufty open the second stanza with a try in the opening minutes to stretch the lead 26-12.  

With the game looking out of reach, Tigers replacement Luke Reis found himself in the sin bin for foul play while Dufty again made the Tigers pay for being a man down with his second try to stretch the lead to 32-12 with the Blair conversion.

 A late try in the 73rd minute to Tigers hooker Shannon Lee gave the tigers respectability.

While the conversion was successful the Marlins still had a comfortable 32-18 lead with only minutes remaining.

But like the first half the Tigers let in two late tries to Marlins Matt Knox and Blair scored right on fulltime for his third try of the day.

Blair converted his own try to give the Marlins the final score 42-18 victory.

Next Sunday is the ‘Battle of the River’ with the Marlins taking on arch rivals the Lower Macleay Magpies with a 1.30pm kick off at Smithtown Oval.

The Marlins are expecting their large supporter base to flock to Smithtown to see an expected tough local encounter.