It was oh so close for the gallant Bulls grand final hopes with a field goal attempt in the final 30 seconds hitting the uprights and then Ben Carrigan having a penalty shot after the bell to snatch the game. About 15 in and about 22-25 out, it wasn’t an easy kick, and just shaded the left post, enabling Narrabri to hold on for an 18-17 win.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Bulls coach Simon Hall said.

And somewhat dejavu for him.

“It’s the second time I’ve missed out on a grand final by a kick in three years,” he said.

Two years ago against Pirates they had a penalty shot after the bell to tie the scores up and send the final into extra time.

Prone to slow starts, the Bulls were in the contest from the whistle on Saturday, and led 10-3 midway through the first half.  

The Blue Boars whittled that away to lead by five at half-time but, as they have had a habit of doing this season, the Bulls came out firing in the second half and within a couple of minutes had hit the front with Joe deDassel scoring off a rolling maul. 

From there the forwards really started to wrest a bit of control through the forwards.

They had had a few of the older heads around the club come in during the week, Hall said, and had put some structures in place to target Narrabri in a few areas. When they executed those they looked good, but they just let themselves down with errors.

“When we had the roll-on and kept the ball tight it worked well. Unfortunately we just coughed the ball up,” Hall said.

“We probably let Narrabri off the hook a couple of times.” 

He felt early in the second half they were starting to get on top of the Blue Boars.

“We spent some time down on their tryline,” he said.

“I felt as though if we got the next try (after deDassel’s) we might have been able to get a roll-on.”

They had a couple of close shaves and were held up over the line. From that scrum a bit of a mix-up resulted in the Blue Boars ending up with the ball and being able to clear it.

Hall thought that was a turning point. 

“It was there for us to win, but we couldn't quite take the game,” he said.

Kyle O’Connor had another strong game at fullback. deDassel also provided a lot of punch off the bench.