The Cobar Roosters kept their grand final aspirations alive after they accounted for the Gulgong Terriers 33-14 in the Christie & Hood First Grade minor semi final on Sunday.
Played in front of a big, vocal crowd at Tom Knight Memorial Oval, the Roosters’ strong defence in Sunday’s match served them well as the Gulgong visitors threw everything they had at the Roosters in what was a very physical contest.
The Roosters also capitalised on every op-portunity that came their way, whether that was scoring off a Gulgong error, or landing a field goal that no one was expecting.
Captain/coach Loma Atuau was switched on from the start of the game and crossed for Co-bar’s first try after just two minutes of play.
Thomas Plater’s successful conversion put Cobar up 6-0.
The next 10 minutes of play was a hard slog for both sides before Gulgong crossed for an unconverted try.
Plater gave the Roosters a bit more breathing room on the scoreboard when he ducked over to score shortly after. His successful conver-sion put Cobar up 12-4.
Shortly before half time Gulgong crossed and, despite missing the conversion, they were still very much in the game at 12-8.
The Roosters pushed the margin out to 16-8 after they capitalised on a Gulgong error.
Roosters winger Jack Brown got over the line to score but Plater missed the tricky con-version from the right wing.
The second half commenced with strong defensive efforts from both teams and there was no change to the score until close to the midway point in the second half.
Big Roosters forward, Gerald Mackey was the first to make inroads when he forced his way over for a try.
David Watson added the extra two points with his successful conversion to stretch the Roosters’ lead out to 22-8.
With just under 20 minutes remaining in the game, veteran Jimmy Neyland took the oppor-tunity to land a field goal in front of the posts which gave the Roosters a 15 point buffer.
While it would have been in the back of the Gulgong team’s mind that it would take a mighty effort to score three converted tries in less than 20 minutes, nevertheless they hadn’t thrown in the towel. Shortly after they were presented with an opportunity after a Cobar ball handling error and they scored to bring the margin back to just nine points.
Learning from their mistakes of previous games, the Roosters didn’t switch off in the closing stages of this game and this time they found an extra gear to produce a dominant and crowd-pleasing finish to the match.
Atuau scored his second try of the game with six minutes left on the clock and Plater’s con-version ensured a win for Gulgong was just too far out of reach with the score now 29-14.
Hard working forward Jed Noonan solidified Cobar’s victory with 2.5 minutes remaining on the clock when he muscled his way over the line to score the game’s final points.
Plater’s final conversion attempt missed the mark but the Roosters had done enough to claim a 33-14 win.
Cobar’s Best & Fairest points went to Atuau, Plater and Tim Hillam with Hillam also earning the Players’ Player title.
Cobar heads to Narromine this Saturday to play the Jets in the preliminary final.
The Jets lost to the Gilgandra Panthers (32-28) in an edge of your seat major semi final game on Saturday in Narromine.
The Panthers’ win secured them a grand final spot and also the honour of hosting the grand final game.
Saturday’s match between the Jets and Roosters at Narromine is sure to be a hum-dinger as the Jets, who finished as minor premiers, will be out to avenge their narrow semi loss on Saturday.
Cobar’s shock defeat by Narromine a few weeks ago, meant the Roosters had to take the long road to the grand final and they will also be out for revenge.
The winner will play Gilgandra in next Sat-urday’s grand final.
