Both sides were coming off good wins and the early signs were of a tight contest, with the Mountain Men pushed into touch just metres from the line before Shannon O’Leary plucked an intercept to foil what looked a certain Roosters try and race away to score.

The Roosters replied minutes later, captain-coach Nathan Hamlin bursting through and brushing off several defenders.

It sparked a Roosters’ surge, with five-eighth Jordan Sharpe, Tom Michell and Martin all crossing in the next 10 minutes to push them out to a 24-6 lead with 15 minutes remaining in the first half.

Things looked to get worse for Bendy minutes later, with O’Leary and centre partner Ian Reid both binned for five minutes but, reduced to 11, it was the Mountain Men who  found the line, with Pete Gardner sneaking over.

It was a rare glimmer for them, with the Roosters winning the battle up the middle and on the ground, and was erased in the shades of the break with Martin splitting open the Bendy defence.

The centre was just dragged down by the collar but a couple of plays later he finished off what he started to give them a 20-point advantage at the break.

Bendy came out strongly in the second half and, as they did in the first, scored first points, half-back Adam Rutley capitalising on a strong charge from Cohol Millgate.

The Roosters again, though, had the answers and ran in another three tries.

Martin, fittingly, scored the last to give him three for the game.

Not used to playing at night, Hamlin said the plan was to “keep it simple”.

They did give away a few silly turnovers but dropped nowhere near the amount of ball Bendy did and worked some good second phase plays.

“Once we got into their half, and completed our sets, we looked good,” Hamlin said.

“My forwards gave a real good effort, even the bench coming on,” he said.

“Our D was strong,” he said.

There weren’t a lot of openings and they  forced Bendy back in the tackle numerous times.

“We’ve really been working hard on numbers in the tackle,” Hamlin said.

He didn’t have a lot of involvement, coming off with an ankle injury midway through the first half.

It was a patchy performance from Bendy and there were no excuses, coach Jake Reid said.

“Kootingal were too good for us on the night,” he said.

They didn’t help their cause with a high mistake rate.

“Our handling errors were atrocious,” Reid said.

They would have blown at least three good chances.

They also didn’t make the meterage and fell off too many tackles.

“Our six and seven – Ruts (Adam Rutley) and Harlee (Millgate) – made a heap of tackles out there,” Reid said.

He thought they and Nathan Flynn were their best.