THE Lions roared out of the gate on Sunday at Scully Park but it was the Bears that growled last to take the Group 4 major semi-final 30-28 and earn consecutive home grand finals.
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At one stage, minor premiers West Tamworth were ahead by 22 points, while North Tamworth fought back and only led for three minutes of the game
Fortunately for the premiers, that was the final three minutes after Richard Clegg scored a try to equal the scores and then converted his own try to take the lead and the semi-final.
Matt Nean was in full control of the game early for the Lions, the halfback sending repeat attacking raids through the North forward pack before unleashing the backs for points although, after two weekends off, Bears captain coach Zac Russ knew the Lions would slow down in the seond half.
“The way we were playing we were actually happy at halftime to only be down 22-4,” Russ said.
“It was very difficult to get in the game. We defended for the first 20 minutes.”
While the Lions have that dynamic edge and play an attacking style, the Bears prefer to grind a result out through set completions and defence, neither of which were working for them in the first half.
A litany of handling errors resulted in frustrated penalties against them, gifting Wests free ball and metres, of which they took full advantage.
A 24-4 lead was quickly reduced to six points as North ran in three successive tries after the break, Scott Blanch getting the bears on the front foot and Corey Manicaros giving plenty of energy off the bench after starring in the U18s win over Gunnedah earlier.
24-18 became 28-18 though after a Sean Nean try for West but, from there, Heath Falkenmire and Clegg would do the rest, and just in the nick of time.
“We are two very different teams,” Russ said.
“To stay in the game and get back in front says a lot about this group of players.
“We will go back and work on a few things, enjoy the week off and get up for a big home grand final.”
Despite the loss, the Lions took plenty of positives from the match.
Front-rower Chris Vidler said that while it was very disapointing not to get the grand final at home, they showed themselves that they can score plenty against the premiers.
The stats suggest that the Lions might even prefer Jack Woolaston Oval after both sides have beaten the other twice away from home in their four meetings this year, that is if they can overcome a hungry Gunnedah Bulldogs at Scully Park this weekend in the preliminary final.
“We are pretty confident we can roll them,” Vidler said.
“Norths have a rivalry with us but Gunnedah really hate us for some reason but they are who we play our best games against.
“Hopefully another week of footy gives us some more match fitness and we can go back to Norths and stay in front.”