Rugby League Results: Finals Football

By David Casson

THREE teams contested the preliminary finals at Scone Park, however at the end of day, only first grade managed to advance to the grand finals and that was by the barest of margins.

Under 18’s

The Under 18 match was between Scone and Muswellbrook.

The visitors had been undefeated until the previous week and Scone would need to be on the top of their game.

The game was tough was the commencement with both teams trying to dominate the other.

It was Muswellbrook who were first over the line after 10 minutes with a try in the corner which was not converted.

Scone responded with 10 to go in the half when Brendon Norton crossed under the posts for a simple Lachlan Walmsley conversion to give the locals a 6:4 lead at half time.

Walmsley showed his class when he skirted down the side line on the last tackle from dummy half, fooling the opposition and giving Scone a 10:4 lead.

Muswellbrook responded however and after applying plenty of pressure, crossed in the corner after forcing a Scone error in defence.

The Rams followed up with another try shortly after crossing near the posts and regaining the lead after the conversion 14:10.

 

A penalty conversion near the end of the match provided them a further two points and a final score line of 16:10.

Coach Darryl Rando was very pleased with the young Thoroughbreds efforts, “there wasn’t much between these teams at all today and a few less errors could have provided us a different result.””That is footy however and every player should be proud of their efforts this year,” he said.

Reserve Grade

The Reserve Grade match was predicted as going to be a close one and the game didn’t disappoint.

Aberdeen were first to cross mid-way through the first half, however Kyle Wilcher evened up the score when he raced over from dummy half 10 minutes later for scores to be 6:6 at half time.

There were plenty of penalties being blown by the ref for both teams and frustration led to an Aberdeen player and then two Scone players all being sent to the sin bin within a few minutes of each other.

Aberdeen were able to capitalise on having an extra player during this time taking the lead 10:6.

Shortly after, the Tigers took a last tackle option that caught Scone unawares and managed to cross again giving them a match winning 16:6 lead with only seven minutes to go.

Kyle Wilcher however managed to crossed again in similar circumstances to his first for the final 16:12 score.

Coach Chris Brennan was disappointed with the result but praised his side “that was tough going and we didn’t really play as well as we could have, however credit to the Tigers and I cannot deny our boys efforts.”

First Grade

The First Grade was also between Scone and Aberdeen and the large crowd were ready for a big match.

Scone didn’t start too well with errors taking the pressure off Aberdeen and then the opposition crossing on their first visit to the Scone line after seven minutes.

Hayden Topliss backed up a Daniel Ritter break after 15 minutes to score near the posts and giving John Johnson and easy conversion to level the scores at 6:6.

Midway through the first half saw an injury to Ritter which would force him off the field for the rest of the game.

Scone responded however and Topliss crossed again soon after and Jarrod Wicks scoring from dummy half five minutes later.

A penalty conversion by Aberdeen as the half time siren was going gave Scone an 18:8 lead at half time.

Aberdeen were first to cross in the second half following a Scone mistake near their line to narrow the gap to 18:12.

Josh Adams made the most of a nice pass from Gary McKeon and Jarrod Wicks repeated his first half effort.

Johnson converted both tries to give Scone what appeared to be a match winning 30:12 lead.

Aberdeen hadn’t clocked off however and the next 20 minutes saw them cross four times with their last one, right on the bell to tie the scores up 30:30.

Mathew Thompson had the chance to give the Tigers the win but couldn’t convert from near the side line.

Golden point time was commenced and Scone had brought Lachlan Walmsley on, having previously played in the Under 18 match.

An error from the kick off by Aberdeen saw them taking a line drop out.

One set of attack was all it took to get the ball to Walmsley who, under great pressure, stepped to the side and somehow managed to get the winning field goal away from in front of the posts.

The large Scone crowd was ecstatic for their team who will advance to the Grand Final against Muswellbrook next week, joining the Ladies League Tag who were already playing.

Coach Daniel Ritter while injured was very relieved to achieve the win “that was way too close and we will need to work on our defence and make sure we complete our sets to be able to get on top of Muswellbrook next week.”