Tallon Smith
They did all they could, but ultimately the Wagga Kangaroos fell short of finals football by the narrowest of margins despite a comprehensive 44-20 victory over Young in the final round at Alfred Oval on Saturday.
The Roos ran in 34 unanswered points against the Cherrypickers to extend their points differential advantage over Southcity to 40, only to miss the playoffs by a single try over the course of the season after the Bulls rallied late with six tries in 23 minutes to beat Cootamundra by 44 the next day.
Kangaroos coach Zeik Foster was understandably disappointed to miss out on the postseason, after the side lost several close matches over the course of the campaign and finished with two drawn results against Young and Gundagai.
“Obviously [I’m] really disappointed at the end result to miss out on finals just on for-and-against, but we’ve only got ourselves to blame,” he said.
“There [were] a lot of games through the year that were there for us to grab, we didn’t at the time, we had a couple of draws and stuff like that, so we should have never seen ourselves in that position, but that’s footy unfortunately.”
The sixth-placed finish is a tough result for the three-time grand finalists to take after the side showed several glimpses of its potential throughout the season, including in the past two weeks against Cootamundra and Young.
After the Cherrypickers took a 20-10 lead into the break, Kangaroos responded, with Lachlan Jolliffe, Wil Hurst, Chantz Carey, James Smart, John Downes and Nathan Clarke all finding their way over in the second half to seal a 24-point win.
Amongst an evidently even spread of good performances, Foster said there were a few standouts who did all they could to bring the side as close as possible to securing a finals spot.
“James Smart yesterday was really good, Hayden Jolliffe had a really good game, he was playing under a bit of a serious hamstring niggle and got nearly the full game out,” he said.
“I also thought Johnny Downes, he had a really good game yesterday, he got moved from the back row out to left centre, just due to injuries.”
Meanwhile, Young will look to snap a three-game losing streak when it faces Southcity in an elimination final at Alfred Oval on Saturday.
The head-to-head battles between the teams this season are in the Cherrypickers’ favour, with the side claiming a 34-28 victory in their season opener, followed by a 43-10 win on the road in round 10.
WAGGA KANGAROOS 44 (Hayden Jolliffe, Joel Kelly, Lachlan Jolliffe, Wil Hurst, Chantz Carey, James Smart, John Downes, Nathan Clarke tries; Smart 6 goals) DEFEATED YOUNG 20 (Matt Noakes, Josh Barton, Max Jones, Nick Canellis tries; Che Hyslop 2 goals) at Alfred Oval, Saturday August 22.
