The Thunderbolts have made a winning start to the 2016 season with an impressive come-from-behind win over the Dragons on Sunday.
Trailing 24-6 after just 25 minutes, Storm’s youngsters managed to turn the game on its head as they piled on 38 unanswered points.
The 44-24 win marked an ideal start to life on the Sunshine Coast for the Thunderbolts.
The fans who turned out for the day went home with even more reason to smile after local product Nate McGavin was named Man of the Match.
Prop duo Josh Kerr and Ben Nakubuwai also impressed along with hooker Jake Turpin.
The Thunderbolts' start to the game was far from ideal but the end results left their coach ultimately satisfied.
“We addressed a couple of things at halftime and we knew we had to get better (defensively),” Head Coach Eric Smith said.
“It wasn’t perfect but it was a lot better than that first 25 minutes. We were able to turn them away from our try line on a number of occasions, which was pretty pleasing given the way we started the game.
“If we weren’t willing to roll our sleeves up and get a bit dirty things would have got pretty ugly for us. I guess that was the most pleasing thing.”
Smith believes the ability to orchestrate such a comeback this early on in the season will do wonders for the self belief of his side.
“Down 24-6 with 12 blokes on debut, a lot of people might have thought that we would’ve thrown in the towel but they showed some real resilience to fight back and turn the tide,” Smith said.
“We’ve got that belief in the group that we can fight back and win a game from any position. It is going to be a real positive for us heading into this weekend.”
The Thunderbolts will play at home again this weekend at Suzuki Field (formerly Langlands Park), as they host the Gold Coast Titans this Saturday at 3.15pm.
