WERRIS Creek will have the chance to host their second successive Second Division grand final after securing the Shield minor premiership with a hard-fought five point win over Boggabri at Boggabri on Saturday.
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The 33-28 win saw them jump three points clear at the top with only a round to play.
“It was a good game of footy,” Magpies coach Lindsay Bowne said.
Albeit a bit tense from his sideline vantage point, with scores locked at 28-all midway through the second half.
Creek had gone into the sheds up 24-12, after hitting the front just before half-time, but came out with the fumbles in the second half.
“We turned a bit of football over and they came back to 28-all,” he said.
With around eight to go, after working their way down the field to set the play up, Creek skipper Brendan Hunt slotted a field goal to put them ahead 29-28, and ease the nerves slightly.
They then ended up scoring a late try to seal the win.
“The boys dug deep and showed a lot of character to get the win,” Bowne said.
Having had three weeks off he was going in a bit worried that they might “run out of a bit of puff”, but that didn't eventuate.
“I thought we played some good solid football around the ruck and the forwards were good,” he said.
Thomas Brown, Bryce Parsons, Jack Pryor and Zac Leonard all had strong games, he said.
Zac Darcy, Hunt and the evergreen Stewie Porter were also good.
Nathaniel Slater bagged three and Michael Saunders two while Chris Rolinson crossed for a hat-trick for the Kangaroos in a man of the match performance.
Dungowan, meanwhile, overcame a two-point half-time deficit to beat Kootingal 28-14.
Cowboys coach Luke Taylor thought prop Mark Macauley had an outstanding game and took the Cowboys forward on a day where talented little hooker Nathan Maguire also excelled with some bullet passes at dummy half.
Matt Wilson also steered the side around impressively in the second half with centre Mitch Browne (two tries) and Clint Ridley also in good form.
The win took them to equal third with the Kangaroos.
Another side chasing a home final is Narrabri.
They currently sit in fourth, but after a 58-12 win over Oxley Diggers, are only a point behind Gunnedah, who they play this Sunday.
Captain-coach Lachlan Cameron was really happy with the way they stuck to their guns in attack and didn't go “too crazy”.
“When we got the lead we didn't try to push the pass,” he said.
“The week before against Armidale we got out to a good lead and lost our way a bit.”
From 22-6 up early they went into half-time 22-18.
The second half they settled down and powered away to win 74-22.
“We took the work ethic of the second half last week into this game,” Cameron said.
“I thought if we controlled the ball and completed our sets it would go a long way to winning the game.”
The last time they'd played Diggers they'd only completed three sets, and went down.
“It was still fresh in our memories getting beaten over there,” Cameron said.
He said it was a good team effort but did make mention of hat-trick tryscorers Jake Rumsby and Kialu Brown.
Stanley Binge also probably had his best game of the year.
