Blue Boars coach Hunter Harley wasn’t too perturbed by the 30-26 loss.

For one, it’s got the “undefeated season” monkey off their back.

“Mentally, that will help us,” he said.

And they’ve still got the chance to “win the war”.

Thanks to their two bonus points from the loss, they will have home ground advantage against Moree for the first battle in the major semi-final.

Depending on what happens then and after, they might meet  Moree  again.

“It was a good reality checker,” Harley said.

It was another level, with the Bulls coming out really up for it physically.

The Blue Boars struggled to contain them and consequently found themselves down 27-nil after just half an hour.

They worked their way back to 27-14 at the break after finally getting a bit of ball, and holding onto it.

Harley thought they would have been lucky to get 20 per cent of the ball in the first half.

They brought it on themselves, with penalties and dropped balls.

“We just had to cut the errors out,” he said.

It wasn’t just the turnovers. They were also kicking balls out off the kick-off on the full and not kicking out their penalties.

The other big thing they spoke about was their line speed.

“We didn’t move off our line when they had the ball and they were making easy metres,” he said.

“We were letting them get a roll-on.” 

They fixed that up in the second half and were the better side in the second half he felt.

They did get back to within one at one stage, and were pressuring the Bulls’ line in the final seconds.

But the ball went to ground.

“I thought we did some really good things,” Harley said.

“I was happy with the way the younger blokes played under pressure .”

Like Jake Packer. Harley thought he was really good at five-eighth.

Halves partner Matt Schwager also had a big game as did Matt McDonnell, playing back at 12, and Tim O’Brien.

O’Brien is “getting better” each game he plays.

The only concern was Henry Curtin coming off.

He’s only just back from injury and was outstanding while he was on the field.

Harley though was optimistic he’ll be right for the major semi-final.

He does have an extra week to recover.

This week it’s the minor semi-final, with Pirates fighting it out against Tamworth.