Gulargambone at the Ailsa Fitzsimmons Memorial Oval on Saturday. In a see-sawing spectacle, the Cobar Camels deservedly emerged victorious, 29-22. Pictured above was Cobar’s most valuable man on the field, Brandon ‘Chucky’ Jones (with the ball) who scored two tries and had a hand in a third which helped the Camels to their thrilling win.
It was a game of contrasting halves.
The first half saw the Camels trying to settle into a rhythm as many of the players had trained together but never played together.
Gular took advantage of their early indecision and within mere minutes of the kick off, Gular had an early 7-0 lead after scoring out wide and landing a successful conversion.
Cobar centre Brandon ‘Chucky’ Jones hit back immediately with a 40 metre individual effort to score first points for the Camels.
David Johnson’s first conversion attempt for the Camels was just short of the posts and Gular held on to a narrow 7-5 lead.
They then stretched their lead 15 minutes into the game to 12-5 after scoring a second try on the right wing.
Gular continued to execute sound attacking plays against the home team but, defence has never been a Camels shortfall. Loose head prop Khan McMurray, No 8 Braden Read and second rower Jordan Bruce ripped into the Gular attack to take the sting right out of it .
Chucky Jones again took control and kicked through the Gular defence and Kody Ford in support chased through to dive on the ball and score.
Led by their five eighth, Kody Martin, the Camels continued to dominate the attack.
After a quick tap from a penalty, No 8 Braden Read trotted in under the posts to see Cobar take the lead at 17-12.
The Cobar Camels were doing things unseen last year—players were stealing possession, they were picking and driving, they were winning penalties and not giving them away and the Cobar scrum was starting to dominate.
Haymish McLeod was outstanding in the tight stuff.
Eventually, Slade Neale spotted a hole in the Gular defence which he galloped through to score under the posts and, at halftime, the Camels led 22-12.
Cobar initially kept the pressure on Gular after the re-start. Pressure from Martin in defence saw Gular drop the ball and Jones latched onto the loose ball and raced over to score under the posts which Johnson converted.
Cobar was in front 29-12 and coasting but a single sin-binning changed the complexion of the game. Seb Best was sent after the referee lost patience with both sides for infringing.
A Gular defender then rag-dolled Camel winger Marley Jones and justifiably Martin stood up for his team-mate to dispatch the offending Gular protagonist into the newly painted green fence. However, the referee deemed the punishment unduly harsh and sent Martin to the sin bin as well.
Gular then decided to go for broke against the depleted Camels.
Camels’ French import Romain Lacouche at fullback saved two certain Gular tries with smart defence while Read somehow held up another Gular raider over the try line.
Gular did however score twice to get within seven points of Cobar at fulltime.
The positive from the second half was the Camels were able to hold out and win with 13 men on the field.
Dubbo Action Sports/Paintball Best and Fairest points went to: Chucky Jones (3), Read (2) and McMurray (1). The Bob Bruce Contracting Players’ Player was Read, playing at No 8 (Lock in old terms).—contributed
