It was supposed to be a Barraba and Kootingal-Moonbi grand final. The season’s standout sides during the regular season battling for the ultimate prize.
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Bundarra, however, didn’t get the memo.
The Bears – a no-frills, rugged outfit led by a no-frills, rugged captain-coach in Luke Deaves – strutted into Kootingal on Saturday confident of upsetting the minor premiers and duly delivered in a 20-14 win.
Like they were against Kooty, the Bears will be the underdogs in next Saturday’s grand final against the Bulldogs in Barraba. But with Deaves having built the side into a kind of collective of himself, they won’t lack grit and self-belief.
It was Deaves who provided the killer blow against Kooty, with the halfback going himself 10 metres out from the Roosters’ tryline in the 55th minute to score next to the posts. Fullback Jake David converted and it was 20-14.
After trailling 14-10 at half-time, the Roosters drew level when strapping centre Jesse Campbell muscled his way over the tryline early in the second half.
Post-match, Deaves said: “It’s a great feeling. Especially coming from what we started with at the start of the year. A bunch of blokes who didn’t know each other. Come a long way. Looks like we’re in the grand final next week. It was a big effort by the boys. We played well.”
He said the Bears won by targeting the Roosters’ edges, which he labelled “a little bit weak”.
“Sort of get our bigger boys out on the edges, playing at them, and just try and play through them. I knew we were gonna win it last week when Kooty lost.”
Deaves described Barraba – on a 13-match unbeaten run and 20-18 major semi-final victors over Kooty – as a “big” side.
“I think we’ve just gotta chip away at their bigger fellas and try and run them around a bit, see if we come out on top. It’s gonna be a big game next week again.”
For the Roosters, it all went wrong in the finals after they lost only two regular-season matches – to Bundarra in round six and Barraba in round 13.
Roosters coach Paul Hyson was disconsolate after the game, blaming the match officials and what he described as the Bears’ go-slow tactic for the season-ending loss.
“It hurts really bad,” he said. “I thought we deserved better than that. The first 20 minutes we were a bit poor. After that we were good.
“But once again on the back of a string of penalties against us that no one can explain, we’re on the wrong end of the scoreboard.”
Bundarra 20 (S Waller, T Taber, A Ditman, L Deaves tries; J David 2 goals) d Kootingal-Moonbi 14 (T Gould, J Sharpe, J Campbell tries; R Martin 1 goal)
