The Gulgong Terriers fought back from a 14-point deficit to overcome the Gilgandra Panthers 32 to 30 in the re-match last year’s Bendigo Bank Castlereagh League grand final last weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Round three of the 2016 season was played on Sunday with a number of players backing up from the representative games the previous day.
That was particularly so in what was the match of the round at Gilgandra with both sides sitting on top of the ladder going into the clash.
Four second half tries to Gulgong centre Brendan Carter, three of them in six minute blitz between the sixty sixth and seventy third minutes of the game, sealed the fate of the home side.
And despite an intense and exciting final few minutes the Panthers could not regain the lead and could only wonder how they had frittered away a game that they had looked as if they were going to win handsomely at one stage.
Terriers captain-coach Brad James said that focussing on their completions turned the game around for the side in the second half.
“In the first half we only completed about 10 per cent of our sets,” he said.
“It was 24-10 at half time and I said to them we’re dropping a lot of footy and not completing our sets.
“And if we can hold it and stay in the grind we’ll get the win and we did exactly that.
“We held the footy for the whole second half and played brilliantly, all the young guys stepped up so did all of our forwards, and Brendan Carter had a great game scoring four tries.”
He added that it was a significant win and one they earned with less troops and players backing up from the previous day’s match.
“I said to the boys after the game, ‘I can’t remember the last time we beat Gil at Gil’, I know we didn’t beat them there last year,” he said.
“Being a long weekend we were pretty short on blokes, we went up with 16 but one had done his medial ligament in his knee – before the game – and was only there if we needed him, so actually it was 15.
“There was rep on the day before as well, Blake Gorrie, Dave Morrison and myself were backing up from that.”
This weekend the Terriers are at home to Coonamble, which will be another top of the table match with both teams the only sides undefeated.
James said they’re expecting a quality match and that if they can pull it off their season will be off to a great start, with two of the toughest away matches – Coonabarabran and Gilgandra – already under their belts.
“They’ll be good, they had a few players in the rep side as well and they’re always pretty handy and travel well too,” he said.
“It should be a really good game, hopefully we can get the win again because then we’ve got the bye the week after and if we can head into that with four from four it will really set up our season.”
The other matches are Dunedoo V Coonabarabran, Coolah V Warren, Trangie V Baradine, and Gilgandra have the bye.
Gulgong 32 (Brendan Carter 4, Callum Rumming, Steve Hardy tries, Brad James 4 goals) defeated Gilgandra 30 (Jamie Towney 2, Jarrah McReaddie 2,Luke Ritchie tries, Ritchie 5 goals).
League Tag
Gilgandra Pink Panthers 36 (Shay Naden 3, Lisa Lordanic, Maykayla Williams, Rochelle Nixon, Shian Chatfield, Allira Riley tries, Chatfield 2 goals) defeated Gulgong 6 (Renice Freestone try, Hannah Barker goal).
Bendigo Bank Castlereagh League Round 3 results:
Gulgong d Gilgandra 32-30
Warren draw Dunedoo 18-all
Coonabarabran d Trangie 66-16
Coonamble d Coolah 58-14
Baradine-bye
League Tag
Gilgandra d Gulgong 36-6
Warren d Dunedoo 36-4
Coonamble d Coolah 32-10
Baradine, Coonabarabran-bye
