The Cobar Roosters have finished their first season in the Barwon Darling competition as minor premiers.
They missed the opportunity of playing a final game before the semi finals after having received late notice on Saturday morning of a forfeit from Brewarrina.
This Saturday they will face the Walgett Dragons, who they have yet to beat this year, in the first semi final.
Their female counterparts, the Roosterettes, also received a forfeit from Brewarrina on Saturday after their opposition arrived late to play a make-up game that had earlier been washed out.
The Brewarrina girls arrived more than 15 minutes late for their scheduled match and when told by the referee, it was to be an automatic forfeit, they elected not to play the match.
The Roosterettes did however get a game on Sunday against Collarenebri with a number of washed out games played at Bourke.
Although Collarenebri Bullettes only had eight players available they were pleased to run out against the Roosterettes in their final game of the season.
The Roosterettes played an expansive game to take advantage of the overlaps on the edges.
First points went to Natalie Barnes who scored in the corner but was unsuccessful with her own conversion for a 4-0 lead early in the first half.
The Roosterettes continued to capitalize on the left edge when Nikki Davey went over to score in the same corner.
Barnes was again unsuccessful with the conversion.
Cobar had some poor handling that allowed the Bullettes good field position to attack but with the Roosterettes’ defence held strong to keep them out after two successive sets of six tackles.
From Cobar’s next attacking opportunity captain Bek Harris then went on a 60m run to the line after beating several defenders.
However her tag fell off five metres from the line and, with the closest defender 30m away, she had to play the ball back 30m.
From broken play Naomi Whitehurst strolled under the posts and Barnes’ successful kick made it 14-0 approaching half time.
Codi Mackay scored next for the Cobar girls from great support play after a Bianka Jacobson’s line break.
Barnes’ second conversion had the Roosterettes up 20-0 at the break.
In a great act of sportsmanship Taylah Good and Emily Claus donned Bullettes jerseys for the second half.
With the additional support the Colli girls started attacking the Cobar line but again the Roosterettes were up to the task with plenty of cover defence shutting down their attack.
Tries in the second half were scored by Lisa Travis, Jacobson, Zoë Harland and Jenna Fullagar with Harland and Barnes kicking a conversion each for a 40-0 final score.
Best for the Roosterettes were Barnes, Fullagar and Harris.
Following their win on Sunday, the Roosterettes finished as runners-up to Lightning Ridge for the season.
This Saturday sees the ladies playing the minor premiers Lightning Ridge Redbacks, a team they haven’t faced this year (due to washed out games).
It will be a good hard contest to see who goes straight through to the grand final in a fortnight.
