The Cobar Roosters demolished Gulgong 52-12 in their Round 11 Castlereagh Rugby League First Grade match at Tom Knight Memorial Oval on Saturday.
It was a game of two halves with neither the Roosters or Gulgong second half sides seeming to resemble the teams that played the first half of the match.
Saturday’s game started out as a good arm wrestle with both teams evenly matched.
When they went to the half time break, the score was narrowly in Cobar’s favour,
14-12, and the match looked like it could have gone either way.
The second half however was played in direct contrast to the first as the Roosters well and truly took all the bark out of the Bull Terriers as Cobar went on to score 38 more unanswered points.
Nathan McAndrew had opened the scoring for Cobar seven minutes into the game with quick hands sending him the ball to score in the left hand corner.
The Roosters gave young superstar Reece Josephson their kicking duties for the match and he only narrowly missed his first side-line conversion attempt.
(With a number of Cobar’s tries scored on the fringes, Josephson had plenty more side-line kicking practice in the match and he finished the game with a tally of six goals.)
The arm wrestle continued between the two sides until Cobar took the upper hand when Roosters co-captain/coach Thomas Plater quickly scooted from dummy half to stretch over and score Cobar’s second try.
Josephson’s successful conversion put Cobar ahead 10-0.
The Roosters looked to have the upper hand, but Gulgong fought back and 20 minutes in the visitors landed their first points.
After sustained attack on the Roosters’ line, fullback Brad James raced over to score on the right wing.
James then successfully converted his try to narrow the gap to 10-6.
Making the most of a penalty, Gulgong attacked the line and James once again found the Roosters’ defence lacking on the right wing as he crossed for his second successive try.
James’ second conversion put Gulgong ahead for the first time in the match at 12-10.
The battle for supremacy continued until just before half time, when Gulgong paid dearly for a ball handling mistake 20m out from their try line.
Cobar went on the attack and the ball was spread wide to Josephson on the wing, who strolled over to score and put the Roosters back in front. They went into the break with a narrow 14-12 lead.
The Roosters were revved up when they came back on to the field in the second half and early probing runs by Josephson and co-captain/coach Loma Atuau had the Roosters quickly within striking distance of the Gulgong line.
Mr Perpetual Motion, Tim Hillam, who was everywhere in attack and defence, muscled his way over three minutes after the restart to score the first of the Roosters’ seven unanswered second half tries.
The ever versatile, Tristan Everett, (who took over the Hooker’s duties when Plater went off just before half time with a head knock), had an outstanding game and was rewarded with two tries for his efforts.
Atuau also crossed twice for the Roosters and had a hand in another. His accurate kick across field found the waiting and safe arms of fullback Ashley Davies who raced over to score.
Gerald Mackay, looking more like a pacey Back than a big Forward, also touched down for a second half try for the Roosters in their 52-12 demolition of the Gulgong visitors.
The Roosters will head to Baradine this Saturday to take on the 7th placed Magpies.
