It had only been two weeks since Starr had crossed but for the influential number eight to go two rounds without a try was “very rare”.

Since then, Starr’s been playing catch-up, as Kelly put it.

He’s grabbed six tries in a fortnight.

Starr bagged a double against Narrabri last week before crossing for four five-pointers against Inverell on Saturday to celebrate his 150^th club game for Pirates.

It was a proud moment for Starr who started at the club as a junior in 1998 or 1999 before moving away and then returning.

Going by Saturday’s effort, the captain doesn’t appear to be slowing down and Starr said there was no plans to slow down at the moment.

“That’s an unknown. As long as I’m enjoying footy, I’ll probably keep going,” he said.

All four of Starr’s tries were scored in the second half as Pirates kicked on from a 28-0 half-time lead to beat Inverell 71-7.

Sam Collins kicked things off for Pirates with a try from close range in the fifth minute while Inverell didn’t get a chance to attack the Pirates line until 20 minutes into the first half.

At that point the score read 14-0 after Bart Leach had scored and Pirates made sure it stayed there as they repelled the Highlanders.

A pair of tries in the space of three minutes to No. 12 Andrew Moodie, who was at his brutal best in the first half, gave Pirates the 28-point buffer to take into half-time.

The second half started much like the first when Starr crossed for his first try after two and half minutes of play.

Inverell finally broke through five minutes later when Lachlan Smith scored to make the score 35-7 but that would be the only five-pointer for the Highlanders.

Outside centre Lewyn Rapana and interchange players John Buchanan and Morgan Pennefather were the other try-scorers for Pirates while James Trappel nailed eight conversions.

The most impressive aspect of Pirates game was their scrum which led to a number of tries.

“It’s been our strength all year – the last few years really,” Kelly said.

“Hopefully we’ll keep reaping the rewards.”

A trio of injuries did put a dampener on the win for Kelly.

Rapana looked to have injured his hamstring late in the game while Kelly said Doug Biffin (knee) and Andrew Moodie (arm) were injured earlier in the piece.

“The result, of course, is fantastic but it seems like we’ve got a fairly big injury ward at the moment,” Kelly said.

“We’ll see how things are during the week and hopefully they’re not too bad so we can keep the momentum going.

“It’s great to see the blokes coming off the bench stand up. I used everyone available today and it was good to see things were still ticking over.”