Luke Cox and Braydon Johnson both scored twice for a Lions side that was sublime at times and put their stamp on the game in the first half.

“For probably 60 minutes of that game we were untouchable,” Lions coach Shame Rampling said.

“The last 20 minutes we were pretty lazy.”

The win puts them out of reach of the Bulldogs and sets up a final round battle with Narrabri for third spot and a home final.

The Blues will be coming into that match on the back of a 58-12 win over Oxley Diggers.

Jake Rumsby led the try charge for the Blues with a hat-trick as they avenged their last meeting loss in comprehensive fashion.

“I was pleased with what we did,” Blues captain-coach Lachlan Cameron said.

“We defended well, only letting in the two tries and we stuck to our guns in attack without going too crazy. 

“We stuck to what we needed to do. We tried to hit the line hard up the middle to give a bit of momentum when we wanted to go wider.”

North Tamworth were handed the points by Armidale in the other game after the Rams forfeited to them.  

Werris Creek meanwhile wrapped up the Second Division Shield minor premiership with a hard fought 33-28 win over Boggabri in their top of the table clash at Boggabri on Saturday.

The points pushed the Magpies four points clear with only a round remaining.

It was a see-sawing contest with the Magpies leading 24-12 at half-time only for the Kangaroos to bound back and level at 28-all. 

Skipper Brendan Hunt kicked Creek one point clear with around eight to go before they sealed it with a late try.

In the other Shield games, Dungowan accounted for the Kootingal Roosters 28-14 on the back of a Mitch Brown double, and Wee Waa defeated Bundarra 26-18, while in the Plate, Bendemeer forfeited to Walcha and Barraba likewise to Quirindi, while Manilla were 38-28 victors over Bingara.