JON Muir is the only remaining Sea Eagle from Sunshine Coast’s historic 2009 Queensland Cup premiership-winning team.

Yesterday the workhorse lock said he was feeling the same emotions as the Sea Eagles recorded their first win of 2011.

In front of a faithful crowd at Sunshine Coast Stadium, the Sea Eagles managed to fight off a late Ipswich surge to beat the Jets 22-12 and register their first points after 14 tough weeks.

“It’s relieving more than anything. We know it’s been coming for a while,” Muir said while blood ran from a deep gash on his eyebrow.

“The feeling’s the same. The boys have been working really hard for each other, so to get the monkey off our back will be good. Hopefully, we keep going forward and build some momentum.”

Sunshine Coast skipped out to an 8-0 lead through tries to Hughie Stanley and Maa Ruua.

Things turned ugly 10 minutes from half-time when Jets centre Donald Malone was sent off for striking Steve Spencer.

Spencer recovered and played out the match, but the Sea Eagles were also reduced to 12 men for a short time as Callum Klein was sinbinned during the scuffle.

Ipswich winger Luke Walker scored out wide on the back of an overlap before Stanley kicked a penalty goal for a 10-6 half-time score.

Ruua bagged a double early in the second half and when Sea Eagles captain Wiremu Ratana found a gaping hole, it looked like Sunshine Coast would finally break its duck.

Jets centre Jarrod McInally scored to make it 22-12 with 20 minutes to go and several Sea Eagles mistakes gave Ipswich plenty of field possession. The Jets could not score, however, and became Sunshine Coast’s first victim of 2011.

Muir said the win would help erase the team’s performance of last weekend, when the Sea Eagles led Mackay 22-0 before losing 24-22. “We know we should have won last week,” Muir said.

“It was our own fault for turning over easy possession. We did that a bit today and it’s something we need to work on, but we’ll enjoy the win for now.

“It’ll do a world of good for these young blokes. They’ve got the skills to play the game. They just need the confidence to back themselves.”

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