Tallon Smith
Last time Tullibigeal-Lakes United met Yanco-Wamoon in round eight, the Sharks were on the wrong end of a lopsided 58-point margin.
Fast forward nine rounds, and the Sharks have defeated every team in the second round of the competition and are headed for a top three finish after handing the Hawks their first back-to-back losses of the season 32-23 at the Lake Cargelligo Recreation Ground on Sunday.
With the club now set to now enjoy a bye before facing the same opposition in the qualifying final, TLU co-captain Nathan Morris said the match gave the Sharks an opportunity to again test themselves heading into the finals off the back of a victory over minor premiers Griffith Waratahs in their previous home game.
“We wanted to play well against them, [they’re a] quality side, and just see where we were at,” he said.
“We do know they had a couple out and we also had one or two out as well.
“I guess on our side, we just wanted to keep that momentum going and the result probably didn’t matter to them as much as it did to us, but we still wanted to keep winning and prove that we could obviously beat them.”
The Sharks started well, taking a 16-6 lead into the break thanks to a first half double from Thomas Byrnes, and an intercept effort from Ned Phillips.
The Hawks struck early in the second half through a runaway effort from Caleb Atkinson, only for Phillips to hit back with his second five minutes later.
Yanco fullback Nia Remuera then kicked a random field goal, before TLU skipper Jaden Kelly added a penalty to make it 24-11 with 24 minutes to play.
The two sides then traded tries from that point, with the Sharks finding replies to two Yanco scores to keep the Hawks at arm’s length for the remainder of the game, as Phillips completed his hat-trick late in the 32-23 victory.
While on paper a hat-trick looks impressive enough on its own, Morris said Phillips’ performance was made all the more incredible given he played a key role in Tullibigeal’s victory over Hillston in the Northern Riverina Football Netball League preliminary final a day earlier.
“He had a big game of rules the day before, and look, that’s neither here not there, that’s all our players’ choice, we don’t try and make that an excuse or anything,” Morris said.
“For a young fella to back up from a big game on the Saturday and put in a good performance half busted and cramping, and all that sort of stuff during the game, I thought he had a huge game.
“He defended pretty well, and … he scored that intercept try and made a couple of good reads.
“He’s a good finisher, he’s pretty underrated the big fella.”
Meanwhile, the result also puts the Sharks provisionally in front of the Hawks if you add the competition points from the final round bye, meaning that Yanco-Wamoon now needs to win this weekend against Hay to secure hosting rights for the teams’ next meeting on Sunday week.
Morris said while it would be great to play at Lake Cargelligo, where the side has lost just one game all year, he admitted it was unlikely, before joking about giving the Magpies a pep talk heading into the clash.
“If they were to slip up last round, there’s a chance of getting that second round spot,” he said.
“I highly doubt it, we might have to try and convince Hay to put on a good performance.”
The final round match between the Hawks and Magpies kicks off at 2:35pm at the Yanco Sportsground on Sunday.
TULLIBIGEAL-LAKES UNITED 32 (Ned Phillips 3, Thomas Byrnes 2, Bryce Fisher tries; Jaden Kelly 4 goals) DEFEATED YANCO-WAMOON 23 (Shan Bradbrook, Caleb Atkinson, John Wharepapa-Rawiri, Troy Dumbrell tries; Bradbrook 3 goals; Nia Remuera field goal) at Lake Cargelligo Recreation Ground, Sunday August 16.
