BENDEMEER rolls the dice for a spot in the Group 4 Second Division semis at Bingara tomorrow and is hoping Quirindi has forgotten last week and comes to the party too.
The make-up of the four is all but decided, with three of the four spots locked in heading into the final round.
It’s out of Bendemeer and Barraba for the final spot.
The Mountain Men have the tougher assignment.
They have to beat the Bullets and hope the Grasshoppers account for the Bulldogs.
That would leave them both on equal points.
Then it would come down to points differential.
At it stands now, the Mountain Men have 10 points to make up on the Bulldogs.
But that will be all academic if they can’t get the job done against the Bullets.
“It’s basically do or die,” co-coach Andrew Thomas said.
“But it was the same last week and we did lift.”
They found some needed form to beat the Grasshoppers 28-10.
“I think last week was the best we’ve played all year,” Thomas said.
“We just hung onto the ball and completed some sets of six.”
If they can play anything like that tomorrow they should go all right, he said.
“If we can play really basic football, control the ball and defend well, we’re a chance,” he said.
He said their ball control was something they needed to work on, and had been.
“We needed to hold onto the ball a lot more,” he said.
“We’ve worked a lot on trying to complete our sets.”
The Bullets took the honours 42-16 in their earlier encounter.
The Mountain Men were missing a few troops that day but the Bullets were “too good” for them, Thomas said, and they know they’re going to have to be on their toes
tomorrow.
“We had a fair few troops out that game,” Thomas said.
That’s not to take away from the Bullets, who were on that occasion “too good” for them, and the Mountain Men know they’re going to have to be at their best tomorrow.
“They’ve got a few handy players,” Thomas said.
“They’ve got a couple of really handy halves.”
They have to close down the space they allow them, Thomas said.
It will be a feast of football at Bingara, with the Bendemeer-Bingara game following the Gwydir River Rats match-up with the Armidale Blues in the New England rugby
competition.
In the other second division games, Dungowan is at home to Kootingal and Manilla will finish its season at home to competition leaders Werris Creek.
