Tallon Smith

It may not have been as easy as the scoreline suggests, but Griffith Waratahs have claimed the first place in the Group 20 grand final after overpowering Yanco-Wamoon 40-18 in a back-and-forth major semi final at the Exies Oval on Sunday afternoon.

After taking a narrow 18-12 lead into the break, the Waratah Tigers finished the stronger of the two sides to earn a week off and seal a return to the decider just three years after spending the entire 2023 season in recess.

Waratahs co-coach Brett Goldspink said the minor premiers approached the match as a must-win on their home turf despite having a second chance up their sleeve.

“We set a target to get this win at home,” he said. 

“I said to the boys ‘this has got to be do or die, we’ve got to treat this like a grand final, because to be honest if we can’t win at home, this is the perfect opportunity, there’s not going to be much chance of us winning away’.

“The boys took full advantage of that and they just played so well.”

The two sides traded tries in the first half, with James Girdler opening the scoring for Waratahs five minutes in, before Hawks back rower Jim Dabea created an opportunity for Caleb Atkinson to run away and level the game at 6-all.

The Tigers’ reply came quickly, with a brilliant cut-out pass from Girdler finding winger Ulu Akolo who crossed in the corner, but the Hawks again hit back through a clever dummy half run from hooker Taine Pauls.

The final say of the first half belonged to Waratahs prop Sima Tau, who crashed over and reclaimed the side’s lead at 18-12 heading into the sheds.

That advantage grew early in the second half, with a Girdler penalty goal followed by a try to Fili Mahe created by some great lead-up work from Kose Lelei putting the Tigers ahead 26-12.

Just as they had done all afternoon, the Hawks found a reply when an offload from halfback Kobe Vulu found fullback Josh Onekawa who dived over to close the gap to eight.

However, the home side ensured the fightback ended there, with Sam Filipo and Moses Lolohea crossing in the final quarter of the match as Waratahs booked their place in the big dance with a 22-point win.

After a relatively light run into the match with no first grade game in the final round and a bye in the opening week of the finals, as well as the ghosts of surrendering a 20-point lead in the preliminary final against Hay last season, there were questions about the side’s fitness heading into Sunday’s match.

Those were emphatically answered in the second half, where the Tigers outscored the Hawks three tries to one, demonstrating their stamina as an outfit and earning another week off to recover while Yanco and minor semi final victors Tullibigeal-Lakes United battle for the other grand final position.

“I think people had question marks on our fitness, virtually having nearly two games off in a row, but we’ve had really good preparation,” Goldspink said.

“The boys have trained really hard and again to be fair, the 60-minute mark, that’s when we started to show our dominance.

“We came off pretty much an easy run in, considering we had Yenda in the last game which forfeited first grade, so we only played a bit of a reserve grade hit out.

“To have a week off, to then play and get the win, to now regroup and get ready for next week, it’s a huge plus, because I know the Leeton and Lakes game was a physical game too, and both these sides have now got to back it up and do it again, and obviously one side has got to win and come back to us.”

The win also marks Waratahs’ third win over Yanco this season, after their 18-10 triumph in round eight and their 26-12 victory in round 16, with the Tigers having only lost two games this season, the largest margin being by six points against the other remaining finalists in TLU.

Despite this statistical dominance over the season however, the importance of finishing the job is not lost upon Goldspink.

“The wins don’t mean anything if we don’t win the grand final to be honest,” he said.

“The pleasing thing is we’ve lost two games all year and the biggest margin has been by six points, so we’ve always been thereabouts.

“I think no one can argue that up until now we’ve probably consistently been the best side in the competition, but again that doesn’t mean [anything] unless you can win on grand final day.

“You can’t take anything away from Yanco, they’re a physical side and they’re a good side, they’ll just keep coming all day, they’ve got some big bodies like us.

“We’ve had plenty of practice against them this year, and I think we’ve managed to get over the top of them in the other two games, so we knew we could use that to our advantage and to be fair to the boys, not being disrespectful to Yanco, we proved once again that we’re probably the more physical of the two sides.”

As for the preliminary final, Goldspink said it was impossible to predict which side would emerge victorious and book a date with his Tigers in a fortnight’s time.

“It’s going to go down to the wire, I’d hate to say who’s going to win, obviously being at Lakes is going to be a hard task for them, but [Yanco] got over them pretty well a week ago, so it will be a good game.”

GRIFFITH WARATAHS 40 (James Girdler, Ulu Akolo, Sima Tau, Fili Mahe, Sam Filipo, Moses Lolohea tries; Girdler 7, Connor Bock goals) DEFEATED YANCO-WAMOON 18 (Caleb Atkinson, Taine Pauls, Josh Onekawa tries; Shan Bradbrook 3 goals) at Exies Oval, Sunday September 6.