Wests Tigers five-eighth Blake Austin continued his impressive start to the 2014 NSW Cup season with a last-second field goal against Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.
The win was the Club's second consecutive last-second win in as many weeks.
Having scored a try after the siren in New Zealand last weekend to steal an incredible 32-26 victory over the Warriors, Austin was again the man of the moment thanks to last second field goal, but not even the man himself was all that sure of how it was going to play out.
“The home crowd was really getting behind us in that last set,” Austin said in reflection after the exhilirating match. “It was really great to be at Leichhardt Oval.”
“When I hit it, I actually thought it was going a little bit left.
“The wind kind of brought it back though so it was all good.”
Austin had an unsuccessful a match-winning field goal attempt last weekend in windy conditions, and was the first to admit that it was a hardly a convincing strike.
“Last week, I thought it was going to come back with the wind, but it just didn’t," he said.
“Fortunately this week, it did.”
It wasn’t until after the match, though, that Austin revealed the most surprising fact of the entire story — it was the first field goal he’d ever kicked in football.
“Yeah, first one ever,” Austin said. “I might have kicked one as a kid but nothing since I started playing footy as a teenager or anything like that.”
"First one ever. I might have kicked one as a kid but nothing since I started playing footy as a teenager or anything like that..."
“Guess it was a pretty good one to get!”
The match continued an impressive run of form for Austin, who moved from Penrith Panthers to Wests Tigers over the 2013 off-season.
With seven tries to his name in just five rounds of the NSW Cup competition, Austin is certainly staking his claim for a first-grade birth — something he’s yet to achieve at the Wests Tigers but focused on attaining sometime in the near future.
“The crowd was just awesome today I can’t wait to wait to play a first-grade game here in front of these fans,” he said after the win on Sunday.
“Hopefully that’ll come soon.”
