Seahorses charge into grand fnal

Given a shot at the line, hard running centre Shayde Perham forced his way across the stripe a few metres in the left touchline.

Tyler Murden nailed the tricky conversion, giving Woolgoolga a 12-0 lead.

The Rebels had a chance to hit back eight minutes later when they chased a ball into the from about 8m inside the sideline to bring the Rebels back into the game.

But disaster struck for the Rebels soon after when veteran fve-eighth Hugh Stanley was sinbinned for a late tackle on a Woolgoolga player as he kicked ahead.

Given the extra man Woolgoolga made the

Pouncing on some dropped ball, the Rebels squeezed a pass to noted speedster Jamal Laurie, who screamed 50m down the sideline, then cut inside the fullback before the cover picked him up.

Two plays later in front of the posts McGrady hurled himself onto a pass from dummy half

Woolgoolga a seventackle restart.

From the tap kick the visitors moved the ball to the right and found Fangupo crashing onto the ball.

In a 50m run to the line, which showed why he’s the Group’s leading try scorer, he beat three defenders and four or fve attempts to tackle him before plunging over in the corner.

Murden missed the conversion, but at 24-12, the game was getting away from the Rebels.

The end came minutes later when the Rebels were hot on attack and pushed the ball to the right edge.

But a pass hit the ground and bounced up for Murden and he had

He congratulated Woolgoolga for outplaying the Rebels, but said nothing they did surprised him or his team.

“We knew what they would throw at us and had plans for it” he said.

“Instead we threw those plans away and did just about the opposite.

“We knew we had to be cohesive and play as a team, instead we were going one out and playing as individuals.” for visiting teams, McKittrick Park became a happy hunting ground for Woolgoolga, chasing a rare premiership title. in-goal area, but while trying to gain possession a player put his foot on the touch in goal line, denying them the four-pointer.

Gordon picked out teenage lock Nick Torrens and McGrady as his two best and said stand-in hooker Luke Walker had also put in.

The minor premiers looked to have few answers to the big, fast and physical Woolgoolga outft, who were the frst to score after 11 minutes.

Handling errors and a penalty coming out of defence handed the Seahorses a pile of possession and it was no surprise when big prop Bailey Connor charged onto a short pass close to the line and dived over near the uprights.

The writing was on the wall for the Rebels a couple of minutes later when the defence let a high kick bounce and the Woolgoolga chasers pounced on it.

From the quarter line tap Woolgoolga marched down the feld and within minutes were awarded a penalty almost in front, which Murden converted for a 14-0 break.

In the fnal fve minutes the Rebels got on the board with a brilliant aerial try.

Halfback Keaton Stutt executed a pin point cross kick which centre Jye Boehme leapt high and tapped back to winger Damon Kirby, who only had to step across the line to score.

Nicholas McGrady slotted a conversion to crash over under the sticks.

Rebels pay when their try scoring wizard Sione Fangupo cut back on the angle and beat two players to score near the posts. Murden converted as the half time siren sounded, sending his team to the sheds 20-6 ahead.

The Rebels open the scoring in the second half and once again it was a try to remember.

At 20-12, the Rebels began mounting attacks on the Woolgoolga line, but good defence and lady luck held them out.

Fullback Dane O’Hehir wanted nothing to do with a towering Stanley bomb, but instead of helping the Rebels, it bounded over the dead ball line to give a 90m run to the line, which he reached just as the Rebels chasers caught him.

To ice the cake, he nailed the sideline conversion to take the score to 30-12.

There was no-one in the Rebels camp more disappointed in the performance than coach Ron Gordon after the game.

He said work commitments meant the Rebels normal livewire number 9 James Olivero missed Sunday’s game and would also miss this weeks preliminary fnal.

He said the Rebels would need to improve against Nambucca at home on Sunday to get to the grand fnal.

“They’re a hard team,” Gordon said. “if we don’t pull our socks up, we could fnd ourselves not taking the grand fnal.”