By Tallon Smith

The Wagga Kangaroos have further asserted their claims on a top five spot with a 40-20 win over cross-town rivals South City at Harris Park on Saturday.

In front of a crowd in excess of 500 in the suburban Wagga sunshine, the Roos ground out the hard-fought victory after South City’s Brody Tracey was controversially sent off for a high tackle midway through the first half.

The Bulls opened the scoring through Mitchell Bennett, before the Roos struck back with three successive tries to James Hay, Hayden Jolliffe and Bowie Foster.

The Bulls struck back through a try to Kyle McCarthy from a grubber to the in-goal, but this was cancelled out on the stroke of half time when Kangaroos Captain Nathan Rose chased a kick and regathered to score underneath the posts to open up a 24-10 half time lead.

South City scored again early in the second half through Jack Davidson to close the gap back to eight points, which sparked hope of an upset amongst the Bulls supporters in attendance.

However, the telling blow came when star Kangaroos fullback Latrell Siegwalt broke the South City defensive line and found halfback Tyler Jones trailing up the middle for a runaway try.

The Bulls continued to worry the Kangaroos though, with five-eighth Klayton Waikato stepping a few tired defenders to score and keep the Bulls within reach of a miracle win with just 12 men.

But the class of the Kangaroos ensured they were to run out victors, with Jones’ second, and a try not far from full time to Brayden O’Reilly ensuring the boys in red and blue were to take the bragging rights and remain securely in the top five and in the box seat to play finals football in 2023.

Kangaroos Captain Nathan Rose said it felt “good to come away with the win” at this crucial stage of the season.

“Bulls had a big occasion on,” he said, referring to the massive NAIDOC celebrations pre-game.

“We probably did it the hard way.

“But it was good to come away with the two points at the end of the day.”

The Roos skipper also praised the efforts of his fullback, Latrell Siegwalt, who was immense for his side in the match, as well as halfback Tyler Jones, who filled in for the injured James Smart.

“I thought Latrell Siegwalt was pretty good today out of the back end,” he said.

“[Tyler Jones] backed up there a couple of times, and was lucky enough to cross over the line.”

When asked about his side’s position in the premiership race, Rose simply spoke on how his side is performing quite well for a “new squad” this season.

“The competition this year is pretty even across the park,” he said.

“We’ll just keep working hard.

“We’ve had a few injuries, we’ve got three weeks off now, so we’ll just look to refresh over those three weeks, come back for the last two rounds, and hopefully continue that on and get into the finals.”

Halfback Tyler Jones also said the win was “good” for the Kangaroos as they look to cement their place in the top five.

“It was a gutsy win, I think we went the hard way about it,” he said.

“Obviously lots of penalties, a few mistakes, but I’m really proud of the boys to get the win, especially here at their [South City’s] home ground.”

Jones also lifted the lid on what it felt like to score two tries in such a big match, whilst filling in the big shoes of James Smart.

“It’s always good to score tries,” he said.

“It was all thanks to my teammates, it was just backing up, I was just in the right place at the right time.”

South City Captain-Coach Kyle McCarthy said that he was “proud” of the effort his side put in to prevent the game being a blowout loss after the send-off.

“We battled on, being a man down,” he said.

“I think the pride in the jersey was really good today, especially being the NAIDOC Jersey, a lot of the boys showed a lot of passion.”

McCarthy said the NAIDOC Ceremony had a massive impact on lifting his team’s performance, with the club having strong Indigenous roots.

“We have big Indigenous numbers within our club and in representing their culture, they really stepped up,” he said.

“It was a lot of the blokes’ better games for the season, but that’s the standard, and they’ve got to continue that for the rest of the year.

“We spoke about it behind the line after that last try, that’s the intensity and passion we’ve got to show week in week out now, we obviously know how to do it and we’ve just got to turn up and do it again next week for an 80 minute performance.”

Heading into their next round clash with arch-rivals Albury, McCarthy said that the club must continue to have a positive attitude despite being out of finals contention.

“We’ve just got to keep improving,” he said.

“We don’t want to have any blowouts at the end of the year, we want to be able to compete and stay in games like we did today.

“If we can do that, there’s plenty to build on next year with a big off-season.”

Bulls five-eighth Klayton Waikato said that it was “a big occasion for the club” with the NAIDOC ceremony and the strong derby crowd.

“We left it all out there and gave it all we [had],” he said.

“Our middles really laid the platform for us backs, we came into the game trying to win the middle.

“It was unlucky that we got one of our boys sent off, but we stayed in the grind, kept our heads high and tried to play the best footy we could.”

Elsewhere, in other First Grade action, the Young Cherrypickers put a massive dent in Albury’s hopes of a finals berth with a 30-24 win at Alfred Oval. 

On a weekend where fifth-placed Gundagai were to lose to Temora, the Thunder squandered their opportunity to wrestle back the two points the Tigers gained on them with their win in Albury last weekend. This makes the task a lot harder for Albury in their bid to snag that final five spot, with the side needing to win their final two games to make the five. For the Cherrypickers, the win puts them level alongside Tumut and Temora in a three-way tie for leadership of the competition with four rounds to go.

The Tumut Blues have maintained their leadership of the competition on points-differential by way of a 40-6 smashing of Junee. 

The Blues’ win secures a finals spot even with four rounds to play, something that is important as they prepare to face defending premiers Gundagai and fellow competition leaders Young in a two week stretch that should test the mettle of a side that have assumed the role of one of the premiership favourites for 2023. Meanwhile for Junee, after two consecutive wins in their return campaign against South City and an uncharacteristic Temora, the Diesels simply met a football team on the rise on Saturday.

Finally, in the lone Sunday game, the aforementioned Gundagai Tigers went down 22-18 to Temora at ANZAC Park. 

In a game that could have put the Tigers two wins clear of Albury in the battle for the crucial fifth position on the ladder, the Dragons bounced back from their shock loss to Junee, to the dismay of the Tigers faithful. Although they have by far and away proven themselves as a legitimate threat, Temora continue to be the dark horse of the competition, sitting in equal first after twelve rounds. As the only team to sweep Tumut this year, the red and whites face a big task this Sunday, when they take on Young at home, in a game that will have massive ramifications for the Minor Premiership and all important finals placings.

Cover Photo: The NAIDOC Ceremony held prior to the Bulls and Kangaroos clash on Saturday in Wagga.