For Narrabri coach John Rumsby, Sunday’s clash against the Bulldogs in Gunnedah ticks all the boxes.
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The first-placed Blues will field an in-form side – tick. The opposition will do the same – tick.
There will be four grades of footy on the day – tick. The sun will shine – tick (he is convinced it will, although there is a 60 per cent chance of rain).
For a man who is advancing in years and, as such, has seen a lot in life, and who has a no-frills demeanour, one suspects it would take a lot to get Rumsby excited. But after two weeks of football in which his side scored 198 points and conceded 10, he sounds as frisky as a colt ahead of the game, or at least a man who has not had a decent meal in a while.
“It’s a hard contest against Gunnedah all of the time,” he said. “They’re always strong. They’ve got some quality players there. The scorelines they’re doing are similar to our scorelines.
“The only difference is we may have got Norths on a good day in the first round (Narrabri won 32-28) and they got them after two or three weeks (the Bears beat Gunnedah 34-14 in round three). You can’t tell much about that. They other scores against other sides are similar.
“Gunnedah are probably better than us. They kept last week’s side (South West) to nil (76-0). That tells us they can tackle and that tells us they can score tries. We’re pretty similar.”
Rumsby read with interest an article in The Northern Daily Leader this week in which Bulldogs coach Sean Hayne analysed the match.
Rumsby thought Hayne was close to being spot on, but was dead right about Blues No.1 Brenton Cochrane requiring special attention.
“He’s playing outstanding, so they do need to control him,” Rumsby said.
“The way Sean spoke it sounds like he’s looking forward to the challenge as well.”
The veteran mentor listed Hayne’s sons, hooker Callum and rookie teenage halfback Marcus, as being among the third-placed Bulldogs’ best, along with fullback Dylan Lake and centre Aaron Donnelly.
The Blues will be without prop Brodie Rumsby on Sunday after he suffered a knee injury in Sunday’s 82-6 defeat of Collegian that will sideline him for about a month.
Hayden Bell, who played five-eighth against Collegian, will miss the match through work and has been replaced by regular pivot Toby Bentley.
In other matches, the Bears meet South West at home on Saturday and Collegian play Wee Waa at Jack Woolaston Oval on Sunday.