Cover Photo: Junee Diesels
Tallon Smith
The Junee Diesels moved one step closer to ending an eight-year finals drought with a 28-18 victory over the Southcity Bulls at Laurie Daley Oval on Sunday.
In club legend Daniel Foley’s 200th game, it was a quickfire pair of tries involving halfback Connor Garrety following the half time break that proved pivotal after Nathan Rose had an early impact in his second game back for Southcity.
Junee co-coach Damian Willis said while he was happy to secure the victory, the side was still far from its best in certain aspects of the game.
“We didn’t play our best game of footy on Sunday, it wasn’t really a complete performance,” he said.
“We struggled a little bit, we didn’t have Jack Schubert and Chase [Bernard] play, but the guys that stepped into their positions went really well [in] Ryan Crowder and Pete Adam.
“It was good to see the guys play well enough to get the victory, but it definitely wasn’t an 80 minute performance.
“Moving forward onto Albury, that’s our next challenge, to sneak into the top three, that would be a massive bonus for us and give us two bites at the cherry.”
In just his third game of the season, Rose opened the scoring for Southcity, before orchestrating the side’s second try on the short side to Isaac Hardman following Quaider Kea’s reply for an 8-6 half time lead.
The tide turned on the other side of the break, with Garrety beating the Bulls defence with a show and go, before finding Cooper Wright with a cross-field kick minutes later to give Junee a 16-8 advantage following Stu Dunbar’s penalty goal.
Needing a reply, the Bulls had one when Jumarne Little-Kearnes crossed to reduce the margin to four, but the Diesels added two further tries of their own, with Foley getting over in his milestone game followed by a controversial intercept try to Jakeem Morgan off a pass that Southcity believed the Junee centre knocked forward.
Josh Siegwalt crossed late for the Bulls to close the gap to 10 points, but it was Junee’s day, with the Diesels recording their eighth win of the season to take another stride towards a postseason return.
In a match where a number of players had moments of brilliance, it was Quaider Kea who emerged with the Junee’s players’ player award, an accolade Willis said was richly deserved.
“He was great for us, he came off the bench [and] really turned the game,” he said
“When I put him on after about 20 minutes, he came on and his first run was quite devastating, he found his front and got us on a roll on, and then [with] his second carry he scored next to the sticks, so he was really big for us, and he got our players’ player award.
“It was probably his best performance of the season.”
As for the side’s finals hopes, with the side two games clear of the chasing pack of Wagga Kangaroos, Cootamundra and Southcity with three rounds to play, the Diesels are in the box seat.
Given that Young sits just two points ahead, Willis said the side does have its eye on a top three finish, but the old cliche of taking things one game at a time remains the focus for the Diesels.
“We just take [it] week by week, we don’t look too far ahead of ourselves,” he said.
“That’s one of the things I have spoken to the players about is don’t worry about the week after next, worry about what’s happening now, control what we can control, and if we control the victories and keep winning over the next three weeks, that will put us in a great position to play semi finals.
“Two bites at the cherry is the perfect scenario for us, but we can’t take any teams lightly even though they are sitting at the bottom of the ladder.
“We can see what a lot of those bottom sides have done to top sides over the last fortnight.”
Junee will travel to Albury on the other side of the general bye, while Southcity will host Gundagai.
JUNEE 28 (Quaider Kea, Connor Garrety, Cooper Wright, Daniel Foley, Jakeem Morgan tries; Stu Dunbar 4 goals) DEFEATED SOUTHCITY 18 (Nathan Rose, Isaac Hardman, Jumarne Little-Kearnes, Josh Siegwalt tries; Siegwalt goal) at Laurie Daley Oval, Sunday July 26.
