The Gunnedah Bulldogs women kept their finals hopes alive as they edged out the Werris Creek Magpies 14-12 in leaguetag action at Kitchener Park last Saturday.
Werris Creek led 12-4, before Gunnedah scraped home after scoring two unanswered tries in the final 13 minutes.
It was Gunnedah’s third win of the year and the first time the Bulldogs beat a top-four team, with the Bulldogs remaining in fifth place while the Magpies fell from equal-first to outright fourth.
The Bulldogs found themselves two wins outside the top four, and three wins behind the now three equal-first teams.
Zoe Fleming, Dakota Durrant, Jacey Ross, Nautica Eather, Grace Mannion and Tara Wilkinson-Ryan played key roles for the victors, and were recognised in the voting for players’ player and 3-2-1 points.
Maddy Finlay was Gunnedah’s sole interchange player while injured duo Deneka Jones and Claire Jones assumed the coaching duties.
A converted try to Mia Cloake put the visitors ahead 6-0, before the hosts faltered 10 metres from the opposition’s tryline.
Fleming came desperately close to scoring a short time later, and then Werris Creek’s Rachel James was sent to the sin bin for an indiscretion.
The Magpies lapsed in defence as the ball went loose soon afterwards, with Durrant peeling through for an unconverted try.
The Bulldogs survived after the Magpies forced repeat sets, but then the home side came up with a knock-on when sending the ball wide and threatening to launch a promising raid. This mistake occurred several times, after the plan had worked well at training.
Gunnedah forced a goal-line drop-out early in the second half, but then the Bulldogs conceded a penalty in attack and in defence. Soon after returning to the field, James rolled a kick into the in-goal area where Cloake pounced for her second try.
After the Magpies again forced successive goal-line drop-outs, Fleming’s drop-kick failed to go the required 10 metres which resulted in an easy penalty goal to extend Werris Creek’s lead to eight points with 15 minutes left.
A fumble from Werris Creek and a penalty to Gunnedah led to a try to Ross from close range, slashing the margin to four points.
The Bulldogs made a couple of handling errors before Eather took a crucial intercept.
Gunnedah entered the 10-metre zone, and then Grace Mannion darted from acting-half to touch down and level the scores.
From an angle, Fleming finally found her radar as she converted the try to put the Bulldogs in front with less than three minutes left.
A subsequent penalty enabled the Bulldogs to close the game out, with the Magpies having their next play-the-ball near their tryline with full-time imminent.
Finlay said it was great for the Bulldogs to beat one of the highly placed teams while it could be a case of turning a corner, after Gunnedah had forfeited its season-opening clash with Werris Creek on April 12.
With the Bulldogs needing regular wins to force their way into the top four, Finlay said, “I think our girls came out hungry and knew that we really needed to win this to hopefully bump us up back into that top four, to get us to the finals.”
Finlay said the players “stayed really positive out there which was great to see” while she didn’t hear any negativity this time.
“The girls know they can do it now,” she said.
“I believe in them and I think they believe in themselves now, so it’s great for us.”
This Saturday the Bulldogs host one of the equal-first teams, Dungowan, which beat Gunnedah 18-6 on Dungowan soil in the previous encounter.
Some of the Bulldogs are also expected to back up in the women’s rugby league clash with Dungowan, after Gunnedah had a bye last weekend in the Mid Season Women’s Tackle competition.
