Ever since facing first division premiers North Tamworth in the pre-season Knockout final the Magpies were destined to be in the mix this season and after a slow start haven’t disappointed the faithful Werris Creek fans.

The Magpies dropped their first game of the season to Dungowan and then after dropping the next one to Uralla went on a run of 11 straight games to lift the Shield at home and erase the memory of last years golden point loss to Kootingal.

It didn’t take long for the home side to get on the board on Saturday, Creek applying some early pressure through the middle that saw Nathaniel Slater benefit out wide for the first try, before the Magpies flew to the other side to score the second five minutes later. 

Fullback Zac Darcy crashing over in the corner to go up 10-nil with both trioes the result of skipper Brendan Hunt’s long flat pass that caused the Cowboys headaches in defence all day.

The two sides then dug in with some big defence keeping each other pointless for the next 25 minutes.

While Dungowan might have missed a few chances, the Magpies made better use of theirs for Brett Thomas to find some room on the right edge from another Brendan Hunt long ball to go 14-nil with only minutes left in the half.

The Cowboys then dug deep and after defending an error made good use of the ball in their half when Shaun Ferguson offloaded in traffic to Lochie Collins who found Lachlan Brown steaming for the corner to cross on the siren and head to the sheds 14-6.

After the break a Michael Saunders try was called back for a forward pass before Matt Wilson through a long ball of his own for Dylan O’Brien to make a break and just fall short of the line.

While Creek looked to be on top the Cowboys scrambled hard to keep them scoreless in the back end, while starting to look threatening with the ball themselves.

Creeks big defence never stopped, man of the match Cody Tickle at the forefront of it, although the Cowboys finally broke through when Seth Morgan made two searching runs, finding Zander Smith on his shoulder to cross under the posts and make it 12-14 with ten minutes remaining.

The Cowboys looked threatening as the big crowd were on the edge of their seats, although the visitors couldn’t find a way through the Magpies solid defence as they held on for their first premiership since 2012.

Coach Lindsay Bowne said the game was won on the back of the Magpies good defence at both ends of the game.