THEY'VE enjoyed their best start to a season in recent memory but Corrimal felt the wrath of the fickle football gods on Saturday, going down 50-8 to Thirroul at Ziems Park.
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If the lopsided scoreline wasn't enough, marquee recruit George Tyson suffered a season-ending knee injury, while fullback Tom Garrido suffered a sickening broken leg that saw the game called nine minutes early.
Back-rower Seb Blackett also left the park early with a shin injury while star centre Ed Ansell is already sidelined after suffering a broken fibular against Dapto last week.
It's a bitter pill for coach Sean Maloney after overseeing a promising 2-0 start to the season, with Thirroul counterpart Jarrod Costello offering his sympathy.
"It's really unfortunate for Corrimal with a couple of injuries and a bad one there at the end," Costello said.
"Hopefully it's not too bad we obviously wish [Garrido] the best and a full recovery."
The Butchers showed little sympathy on the paddock, leading 30-0 at the break after running in five first half tries in faultless first 40 minutes.
They went on with it in the second, adding four more before the match was called to an early halt.
"It was a good start from us, we played really fast and really direct in the first 40 which is what we wanted," Costello said.
"Corrimal have been playing really well so we wanted to start fast and start clean, no errors, no penalties, and get into the grind early on. It was much better than round one.
"We completed most of our sets and we didn't make stuff up on the run, we used our genuine shape to create our chances, stuck to what we do and got through our sets.
"We've got Dapto next week and then Helensburgh the following week so we string a few together and try get a bit of momentum.
"It's hard when you have a bye [in round two] after one game. We didn't play that well in round one either so it would've been nice to go straight into a game so hopefully we can get a few on the trot now."
Jack Noble opened the scoring for the Butchers two minutes into the match and the rest of the points came in a flood, with Blake Higgins, Hayden Crosland, Wayne Dargan and Cooper Purcell all getting across before halftime.
Crosland had his second seven minutes into the second stanza, while Jake Walker, Tom Simpson and Damian Sironen also got across as the lead ballooned to 50-0.
The Cougars found some consolation with tries to Wiremu Peters and Jake Eccelston before Garrido's injury capped a horror afternoon for the hosts who will need to regroup ahead of their road clash with Helensburgh next week.
In Saturday's other fixtures a hat-trick to Colby Pellow helped Wests to a commanding 40-4 victory over Berkeley, setting up a blockbuster clash with Collegians this week.
The Devils were at their clinical best at Berkeley Sports Ground, running in eight tries to one to notch back to back victories after sitting out round one with the bye.
It was a tough afternoon for the Eagles, who had just one try to fullback Grayson Goodwin in response, to drop to 0-3 on the season.
They'll get a much-needed two points from a round four bye ahead of a virtual must-win clash with Dapto in a fortnight's time, with the Canaries also looking to avoid an 0-4 start against Thirroul this weekend.
Collies will take good form into the match against the Devils at Collegians Sports Centre after their 26-8 win over the Canaries on Saturday - centre Brad Manton grabbing two of his side's five tries.