The North Tamworth Bears overcame a spirited Narrabri Blues 22-20 at Collins Park on Sunday.
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The Bears had to work overtime to snare a crucial win and stay level on points with competition leaders Kootingal-Moonbi.
Feisty little Bears halfback Kieran Fisher led the way for the Bears. The talkative and competitive No.7 won his side’s player’s player award, and collected three points as the game’s best and fairest.
“He controlled the game,” Bears captain-coach Scott Blanch said. “He’s a terrier, a real competitor.
“It was a tight one today. A few things didn’t go our way but we did defend well the last 20 minutes on our line. So I wasn’t too disappointed about that.”
The Bears went into the game missing what Blanch described as “a bit of punch” with Tristram Morris, Jake McManus and Brad Marshall all absent.
“But it allowed us to give a few of the young kids a lot more minutes,” Blanch said.
Blanch had been prepared for a stiff contest from the struggling Blues.
Blues coach Wayne Saunders was “so proud” of the effort from his team, who were also missing senior players.
“We had to send six of our juniors on to help out reserve grade,” he said. “And we had a couple [juniors] fill in on the bench in first grade too.
“The effort was there today – we were just missing a few extra first graders and were fatigued at the end. We had the ball on their line with 40 seconds left but we were just too tired from all the work and couldn’t come up with a play to beat them.”
He said hooker Blues Jacob Nichols, second-rower Les Boney. Blake Hilderson and captain Brenton Cochrane were outstanding.
“Jack Rumsby and Jacob [Nichols] played 80 minutes, played their hearts out. It was heart breaking not to score at the end. They deserved it [the win],” he said.
First grade: NORTH TAMWORTH 22 (Colby La Chiusa, Scott Blanch, Shane Wadwell, Nic Dobson tries, Richard Clegg 3gls) d NARRABRI 20 (Brenton Cochrane 2, Jacob Nichols, Jess O’Neil tries, Blake Hilderson 2gls) NORTH WEST FARM MACHINERY AGCO B&F: 3 Keiran Fisher (NT), Les Boney (Narr), 1 Jacob Nichols (Narr).
Second Grade: NORTH TAMWORTH 38 (Blake Cameron, Jesse Murray, Shaquille Ervine, Zac Nigro, Ashley Inman, Robert Morris, Nicholas O’Leary tries, Damien Cutmore 5gls) d NARRABRI 12 (Kevin Condrick, Kaleb Mowle tries, Mowle 2gls) Narrabri forfeited second half.
Under 18: NORTH TAMWORTH 18 (Nick Taggart, Malaki Johnson, Keiran Hynch-Peters tries, Hudson Shaw 3gls) d NARRABRI 16 (Harry Pattison, Jake Byrne, Blake Ryan tries, Liam Doyle 2gls) NORTH WEST FARM MACHINERY AGCO B&F: 3 Nick Taggart (NT), 2 Jake Byrne (Narr), 1 Lachlan Hedley (Narr).
Ladies League Tag: NORTH TAMWORTH 62 (Kimberley Resch 3, Alex Rogers 3, Kate Ferguson 2, Leica Le Brocq, Steph Fullwood, Angie Trickett tries, Resch 8, Rogers gls) d NARRABRI 0. NORTH WEST FARM MACHINERY AGCO B&F: 3 Alex Rogers (NT), 2 Kimberley Resch (NT), 1 Tiarn Bayliss (NT).
