Moree stampeded their way into the Central North second grade grand final at Ken Chillingworth Oval on Saturday.
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The Bulls were impressive as they dispatched of arch rivals Narrabri 40-16 to book the first spot in the decider.
“That was probably the best we’ve played all year,” Bulls co-coach Nathan Holland said.
Up 17-6 at half-time, the minor premiers did all the things you want to do in finals football. They controlled possession and territory, and when they got in the red zone scored points.
The forwards did a lot of the damage with the Blue Boars struggling to combat the Bulls pick and drive game. Twice in the second half they had success electing to take quick taps from penalties.
“It’s a fairly handy forward pack. It would probably rival first grade,” Holland said.
Playing for the chance to defend their title, he said “everyone was up for it”.
They knew the Blue Boars would be a much tougher proposition than they were when they met earlier in the season, and really focused on when they had the ball keeping hold of it.
It was hard to pick out standouts, but Holland was happy with how the new halves combination of Tony O’Donnell and Daniel Coulthurst performed, with skipper and five-eighth Sam Copeman out with injury.
In his absence inside centre Jake Cutcliffe assumed the captaincy duties and had a big game as did number eight Jared Snook.
Sam Kahl did score a late consolation try for the Blue Boars, the boot of Michael Cain providing the rest of their points.
They will now tackle Inverell at Walcha next Saturday after the Highlanders upset Pirates 37-12 in the minor semi-final on Sunday.
Their second Tamworth scalp of the finals series, the Highlanders set the win up in the first half, taking a 29-5 advantage into the break.
“The first 10-15 minutes of the game we took hold and played our game. We didn’t play their pace,” Highlanders coach Fraser Palmer said.
It was something they were conscious of heading into the game – not getting dragged into playing at Pirates’ pace.
“Once we got a couple of tries on the board we kept on going forward,” Palmer said.
Their first win over Pirates for about four years, the forwards laid a strong platform.
“We’ve been working a lot at training on our pods. That worked well,” he said.
They also showed good patience when they got down Pirates’ end, and their work over the ball was strong to set up the ball.
He said it was an outstanding performance from everyone but couldn’t go past captain and inside centre Blake Whitechurch. Since stepping up to the captaincy he has really upped his game.
Flankers Scott Houston and Trent Hoscher also had a big influence while Brady Mather had an “unreal game” at fullback.
Coming off a double in their elimination final win over Tamworth the previous week, he scored twice, Josh Phillips, Tyson Kennedy and Hunter Barnett also finding the tryline.