In front of a large Ladies Day home crowd, the Bulls proved their place in the top tier of the first grade competition with a 33 to 14 victory against the Red Devils.

“It was a good win for us,” first grade coach Dave Silversides said. “It was hard going in the first half with penalties and poor ball security but a couple of late tries in the second half to Josh Walker secured the win for us.”

Despite a less-than-ideal first half performance, the Bulls stepped up in the second half proving just too good for Gunnedah.

“Defensively we were pretty strong against a large Gunnedah forward pack,” Silversides said.

“Our outside backs certainly took advantage of the opposition in the second half to score points and our ball security in the second half was much improved.

“Discipline around penalties was particularly pleasing and in the second half we didn’t give away any silly penalties.”

Winger Josh Walker had a top game, scoring a number of tries, while captain Will Carrigan once again put in a solid performance. Number 12 Alex Corlis was also strong.

Silversides said Gunnedah will certainly be competitive with the rest of the top tier competition, despite coming in fifth.

“Gunnedah are a very committed side and play a physical brand of football,” he said.

“They travelled in form and ready to play a competitive match. Our guys had to step up and defensively work very hard around the field.”

Moree is currently sitting in third place on the top tier which Silversides said is a particularly pleasing considering the significant changeover of first grade players over the past 12 months.

“It’s great to see the young players that have come to the club playing well; we’re very pleased with how the larger squad have gone for the club and are reasonably confident at this stage of the competition,” he said.

While there’s still plenty of work to be done, Silversides said Moree have their sights set on semi-finals. And with first grade coming third and second grade at the top of their competition, that goal is within reach.

Moree will have a big trip this Saturday as they head to Scone to take on the Brumbies. Although this is Scone’s first time in the top tier, Silversides said they’re not to be underestimated.

“Scone are much improved this year in first grade ... they’re playing quite hard and we’ll have to play to the best of our ability to beat them,” he said.