The Cobar Roosters Under 12s have fin-ished the Dubbo & District Junior Rugby League 2022 competition as Minor Premiers in their division.
The Cobar side kept their unbeaten record intact this season after beating the Narromine visitors 30-12 in the final game of the regular competition at Tom Knight Memorial Oval (TKMO) on Saturday.
Throughout the game, the Roosters showed plenty of skill in attack and a ton of determina-tion and commitment in defence.
Narromine recorded first points to take an early 6-0 lead, however the Cobar team were-n’t fazed by the early setback as they had been well prepared by their coach Graeme Barton.
The Roosters kept their cool and methodical-ly set about taking control of the game.
Soon after Cohan Nicholson opened Cobar’s account after a determined run saw him storm over to score and narrow the margin to 4-6.
Midway through the half, a strong run from Aiden Hyland saw him force his way over to score and the subsequent conversion put the Roosters ahead 10-6.
Soon after they stretched the lead to 16-6 after Rowdy Barton, who was reading the game well, took advantage of a penalty close to the try line.
Rowdy ran the ball wide to find a gap and score.
The Roosters extended the lead to 22-6 fol-lowing a kick-chase effort with a committed Talas Burke (playing up from the Under 11s) scoring next for Cobar.
Taking advantage of no urgency shown by the two Narromine defenders, Talas pounced on the ball over the line to score and give Co-bar a 16 point lead at half time.
It was a great re-start for Cobar as they re-gained the ball from the kick off and Narro-mine failed to stop Cobar’s relentless attack.
Aiden crossed out wide for his second try of the match and Rowdy scored his second try soon after, with a kick chase effort to score in the far corner.
With eight minutes left on the game clock, Cobar had a 30-6 lead.
Narromine scored a late consolation try after a runaway, tip-toeing run down the sideline which brought the final score to 30-12 in Co-bar’s favour.
Talas earned the Players’ Player award while the Coaches Award went to Cohan.
Cobar will play second placed St John’s Gold in the major semi final this Saturday in Dubbo. In the other Round 13 games played on Saturday at TKMO, the Under 10s won a thriller of a game over the visitors, 34-26.
Tommy George led the try scoring for Co-bar with three tries, Billy Watt crossed twice and Judd Josephson and Dusty McDonald scored one each. Goals were kicked by Austin Kane, Thomas Knight and Lucas Townsend.
The Under 10s Players’ Player was Tommy George with Thomas Knight collecting the Coaches Award.
The Roosters Under 11s were unlucky to lose their match to the Narromine visitors 30-28. After leading 16-12 at the half time break, Cobar were forced to relinquish the lead when Narromine scored immediately after the restart.
A tit-for-tat match continued with Cobar scoring next points to lead 22-18 and then Narromine replied with a converted try to put them in front 24-22.
With eight minutes left in the match, Narro-mine scored again to go out to a 30-22 lead but Cobar still had plenty of fight in them and shortly after a converted try had Cobar trailing by just two points, 30-28.
Cobar worked hard in the dying minutes of the match to change the outcome, however cool heads by the Narromine defenders made sure the Cobar attack was shut down and they finished with the narrow two point win.
The loss unfortunately cost the Roosters a semi final berth.
Jaxon Waugh scored three tries for Cobar and George McDonald ran in two. George and Jaxon kicked conversions along with Tommy George and Talas Burke.
Their Players’ Player was Jaxon Waugh with the Coaches Award earned by George McDonald.
The Cobar Under 16s also missed out on the semis after their 14-36 loss to Narromine on Saturday. Cobar’s try scorers included Oisin McMullen, Jamal Eves and Tahj Foley with Tadhg McMullen kicking one goal. Oisin was named Players’ Player with the Coaches Award going to Tommy Bryan.
The Cobar Under 14s were beaten 22-54 by the Jets. Cobar’s points came from tries to Axel Fairfull (2), Jaxon Burke and Zaiden Saunders with Tim Eves converting three times. Ryan Mugugia earned both the Players’ Player and Coaches Awards.
In the Under 9s game, Jack Mitchell earned the Players’ Player honour while the Coaches Award went to Bria-June Brookman.
In the Minis games played on Sunday, the Under 6 awards were shared by Lucas Davey and Levi Prince while the Under 8 awards were collected by Maddox Best, Ashton Hy-land, Hayden Betcke and Kade Taylor.
