Dungowan secretary and Group 4 treasurer Peter Blom invoked the spirit of Brett Kenny as he pulled on the gold shorts and led out the Dinosaurs to tackle, tag and tease old Roosters adversaries.

Masters is for over 35s only that have retired from regular football, with colour coded shorts for contact levels.

The game at Dungowan had players up to age 65.

Scores and records were not kept as the game raged on over three ten-minute periods with eight players a side.

Dungowan was on top for the opening period, with Chris Hague and Ian ‘Snow’ Deaves doing the damage early on.

“They were continually busting the line and distributing the ball well,” Blom said.

Three players had gold shorts on, meaning they could only be touched, but most of them pulled on the white open contact shorts and went at it.

“They certainly weren’t missing each other,” Blom said.

Referee Craig Follington made the mistake of lining up against some former players he used to officiate over, with “a few get-squares put on him.”

The Dinosaurs didn’t handle the mandatory bottle of port after the second third as well as the Kooty boys did, and the momentum changed ways.

The tipple made the Kooty blokes more creative in attack and they were soon running the game.

“There were a lot of breaks made but the tryline was too far away,” Blom said.

“There was a lot of laying in tackles and slowing the ball down at the end as well.”

Referee Luke Sheather was letting the players get away with some of these infringements and was right in the spirit of things.

The game finished  a draw, with both sides retiring to the change rooms for more port and to tell tales of this and former games.

Blom is also trying to get a women’s rugby league team going in Tamworth. 

“We’ve got about 11 starters at the moment. Obviously we need 20 more,” he said.

He said they don’t want to take away from league tag and are targeting players who aren’t playing league tag but would like a game of rugby league.

There will be a meeting for anyone interested at West Leagues Club next Monday (May 19) at 6.30pm in the Chillingworth No.2 room.

Anyone interested in having a run in either the Masters or women’s can contact Blom on 0408 658 154.