Gunnedah learned from their mistakes - well some of them anyway - as they exacted their revenge on Inverell on Saturday and moved a step closer to back-to-back minor premierships.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Red Devils need one more win to make sure of it but are looking fairly comfortable with the 34-24 win pushing them 12 points clear at the top with three games remaining.
After relinquishing it to the Highlanders in the first round, they also reclaimed the Kookaburra Challenge Cup.
So far the only blemish in their copybook, the Red Devils trailed 17-nil then after what coach Dan Martin described as the worst 20 minutes of football he's seen them play in two years, before fighting back to fall two point shorts in the end.
Heeding the lessons of that, on Saturday they came out firing, half-back Sam Crane catching the Highlanders out with a sneaky dart down the short side from a scrum about 20 out to give them a 5-nil lead after just five minutes.
From there they were never headed, and controlled the flow of the game for much of it.
It wasn't always clinical; there was some pretty loose play at times. But that was interspersed with some flashes of why they are regarded as the team to beat.
Pay the Highlanders their dues too, they didn't take a backwards step or give up, for which they were rewarded for with two late tries.
They were unlucky not to only be trailing by five at half-time, the Red Devils forwards flexing their muscles and driving over in the final seconds to push out to a 24-12 lead at the break.
It stayed that until around the 21st minute of the second half when the Red Devils' two most dangerous attacking weapons - James Perrett and Emori Waqavulagi, combined for a 70m effort.
If it wasn't already, after being close to scoring on a couple of occasions, winger Darrell Morrison then sealed the win for them with five minutes to play.
"It was a great outcome, first verses second for us to come up out on top was good," Morrison said.
"We've got a bit to work on. We've got more points in us."
They blew quite a few good chances with dropped balls. That is one of the things they will be looking to iron out ahead of the finals, although they have a couple of big games before then with Pirates next week and then Narrabri to finish.
Morrison highlighted their structure as one of the keys to getting them the result.
"As soon as we went back to structured footy we seemed to walk around them really," he said.
The two late tries was some consolation for the Highlanders, earning them the four try bonus point.
But they did slip back to third after the Blue Boars gave Pirates a dust up 51-19.
Coach Ariki Wineti was understandably disappointed but said they'll learn from it and was proud of the heart they showed to come back.
"Gunnedah were good," he said.
"They played to their strengths with a big forward pack and then they've got that outstanding winger (Waqavulagi). They fed him the ball and he hurt us."
He felt they were feeding off scraps for a lot of the game, which made it hard to get momentum.
"We had clean ball at the start but we just didn't use it well and then after that we were playing catch-up football," he said.
In the other game prop Harry Gavin scored three tries as Quirindi beat Scone 27-18.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News