While Penrith and Newtown set the pace for The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup competition for 2022, the North Sydney Bears weren’t too far behind them.
The Bears have hovered at fourth position for the past couple of years (excluding 2020 which was abandoned after one round due to COVID) but went one better in 2022 after finishing just two wins behind the leading teams by the end of the regular season.
It was a touh end to the year after they were eliminated in the finals following successive defeats, but coach Jason Taylor’s men would be well aware a Grand Final appearance is within reach if they can hit their straps at the business end of the season.
Season highlight
Ahead of the last game of the final round, North Sydney had to produce a winning margin of at least 47 points to jump ahead of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and earn a Major Semi-final berth against the Panthers.
Third spot also came with the all-important double chance in the opening week of finals.
As it turned out the Bears already reached that tally by the 53-minute mark at 48-0, but despite a try from Mounties’ Josh Carr with 20 minutes remaining, North Sydney’s Ben Thomas scored late on to lock up third position.
Ethan King also starred with a hat-trick, while winger Tom Carr bagged a brace to become the outright top try scorer for the season (22 tries).
Simply the best
Adam Keighran was a key part of the Bears’ success this season and his attacking prowess was equally as impressive from 17 matches in 2022.
The 25-year-old played at centre in all but two of those games where he featured in the halves. He finished the year with 17 try involvements (eight tries, nine assists), 12 line-breaks, 37 tackle busts, 12 offloads and 80 run metres on average.
On top of that he finished the regular season with 155 points (eight tries, 64 goals), putting Keighran atop the point scoring leaderboard after 24 rounds.
By the numbers
The Bears’ strong home record helped their finishing position after they built a fortress-like atmosphere at North Sydney Oval with eight wins and three losses – third in the competition.
They also had no issue finding scoring opportunities after leading the competition for line-breaks (149) and line-break assists (134).
The one area North Sydney could look to tidy up for the upcoming season is their error count (244), trailing only the Bulldogs at the top for that category in 2022 (279).
