Bundarra have snuck into the top four and will face Bendemeer on the mountain in the minor semi-final next weekend, after they did their job against Uralla and Boggabri did them a favour against Manilla as the regular season closed on Saturday.
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Bundarra’s 22-6 defeat of Uralla and Boggabri’s 50-16 defeat of Manilla means the Bears jump Manilla to finish in fourth place, joining minor premiers Kootingal-Moonbi, Barraba and Bendemeer in the finals.
Barraba and Bundarra are the only teams to have beaten the Roosters this season, and Bendemeer came close to joining the exclusive club in their past two matches against Kooty.
The four best sides have made the finals.
Most money would be on Kooty or Barraba winning the premiership.
Kooty and Barraba are riding nine and 12-game winning streaks, with the Roosters’ last blemish at 44-24 home loss to the Bulldogs in mid-June.
The Roosters finished the regular season with a 52-12 defeat of Dungowan at Kootingal on Saturday.
But despite the clinical performance, it is easy to image the Roosters already had an eye cast towards next Sunday and a confrontation with a Bulldogs side who beat Bingara 62-26 on Saturday.
Roosters coach Paul Hyson regards Barraba as his side’s biggest threat.
Speaking after the Dungowan win, he said: “They’ve done very well themselves. They’ve been unbeaten for a long time, so we’ll have to aim up once again.”
Against Dungowan, Kooty established a 24-6 half-time lead after centre Logan Howard bagged two tries to go with the four first-half tries he scored against Manilla the previous round.
Five-eighth Jordan Sharpe, halfback Ryan Martin and hooker Matt McCulloch also scored tries.
Kooty scored five more tries in the second half, with the Cowboys’ four-pointers supplied by centre Blake Waterhouse and five-eighth Dale Wood.
Waterhouse should have bagged a double, although his tomfoolery in failing to do so was highly amusing.
Waterhouse went from villain (he had seemed more interested in seeking confrontations than playing football) to comic relief when he bombed a certain runaway try by slowing down to allow a Kooty player to get closer to him.
But when the player knocked the ball out of Waterhouse’s arms as he went to ground it, he was left bent over in despair and embarrassment in the in-goal area, as the home crowd howled their approval.