The Cobar Roosters First Grade team was disappointingly beaten on the buzzer in their Barwon Darling Cup final at Walgett on Saturday.
After a win earlier in the day by the Roosters’ Under 18s side and with their Ladies League Tag team already qualified for the grand final, the Cobar club was hoping to have representatives in all three grades of this year’s grand finals.
In comments made after Saturday’s loss, Cobar Roosters club president and First Grade player Chris Deighton said he was disappointed they had not been able to give First Grade coach/player Ben Trudgett the career send off that he deserved.
(Trudgett recently advised that he would be stepping down from all committee duties next season.)
Walgett hosted the final at Ricky Walford Oval on Saturday and was keen for a win in front of their home crowd.
Two first half tries to Luke Hunt helped to give the Dragons a narrow 22-14 lead at half time and set the show for a thriller second half.
Cobar captain Tim Hillam was a stand out in Saturday’s game and proved very hard to tackle.
Big forward Ben Simon also proved a hard target to tackle and was able to offload passes which ultimately led to a number of tries.
David Watson also had a good game in the forwards for Cobar in attack and defence.
After trailing right up until the last five minutes, Cobar scored two late tries to take a 32-28 lead before Walgett scored after a dubious pass just before full time to score.
Their successful conversion on the bell and a 34-32 win gave Walgett their grand final entry card.
Cobar’s try scorers were Watson (2), Hillam, Marty Turton, Simon and Ethan Black.
Watson kicked three conversions and Brandon ‘Chucky’ Jones kicked one.
Deighton said the team was well led by Jones, and also praised their younger players Jay Ellison, Nick Buckman, Jason Fell, Patrick Hallcroft and Turton who backed up from their Under 18s game to bench for First Grade.
