The Cobar Roosters First Grade side improved their standings in the Castlereagh Rugby League competition with a great home ground performance on Saturday afternoon to beat the Dunedoo Swans 36-18.
The Roosters’ win over the third-placed Dunedoo ensured they kept their equal 4th place standing on the competition ladder.
The final round of the regular competition which is to played this Saturday is still however a do-or-die match for the Roosters.
They will book themselves a semi final berth in they can beat Binnaway, who they share the equal 4th spot with.
The Roosters exploded out of the change rooms on Saturday afternoon at Tom Knight Memorial Oval and were raring to go for their all-important Round 17 game against Dunedoo.
The Cobar side ran in eight unanswered tries to lead 36-0 before the Swans played themselves back into the game late in the second half.
It was just two minutes into the game when Cobar’s hard man Alastair Travis crossed for the Roosters’ first try.
Rob Childs missed the conversion with the ball bouncing off the posts in the swirling, windy conditions.
Fullback Tim Hillam crashed over under the posts to score Cobar’s second try which made for an easy conversion for Childs to put the Roosters ahead 10-0.
The Cobar team was working well together with Ben Simon, Chris Deighton, Jed Noonan and Tom McBride doing a lot of work in defence to foil each and every one of the Swans attacking raids.
The visitors fumbled a certain try when the ball was lost over the line and they also failed to make the most of a player overlap when a Cobar player was sent off for 10 minutes for “vocally disagreeing” with the referee.
As well as working hard in defence, the Cobar forwards were making lots of inroads into the Dunedoo defence to give their backs plenty of room to run.
Cobar’s third try came when five-eighth Jimmy Neyland produced a well-timed pass to find Noonan on the burst who crossed to score.
Once again Childs’ conversion bounced off the posts but Cobar led 14-0.
Shortly after Hillam scored his second try dragging a number of defenders with him over the line to stretch the margin to 18-0.
For the next 10 minutes neither side could penetrate their try lines and the score remained
18-0 at half time.
The temperature dropped and a passing shower made for a miserable re-start to the second half with the spectators all looking for cover.
The spirits of the Roosters were not however dampened with Tom McBride soon winning an arm wrestle with the Swans defenders to score under the posts.
Childs’ successful conversion gave the Roosters a comfortable 24-0 lead.
Matt McDougall ran in two tries in quick succession and then good backline passing saw Sam Baker cross out wide to give Cobar a commanding 36-0 lead.
The Swans switched on in the final 10 minutes and staged a good fight back running in three converted tries through Nathan O’Malley, Toby O’Leary and Chris Kearney.
Daniel Lane converted all three to bring the final score to 36-18 in the Roosters’ favour.
Tristan Everett had a big game to collect the Players’ Player honour as well as the Roosters’ Best & Fairest three points.
Baker earned Best & Fairest two points and Neyland was awarded one point.
