Binalong girls, juniors fall shy at semi finals

By bos Indicus

RUGBY LEAGUE: The Brahmans First Grade team had the week off by virtue of their minor premiership, so the second placed Jersey Girls travelled with the Binalong Calves to Condobolin to take on Condobolin and Eugowra respectively.

The Girls led off at 11:30 in fine but cold conditions to try to repeat last week’s 30-10 victory performance over the Condo side. Sadly that didn’t eventuate; the girls started slowly and weren’t running onto the ball as they were in their previous encounter with Condobolin. They defended furiously all through the game but poor passing cost them.

The home side forced a line drop-out after 12 minutes which led to a Condo try and the score was 4-0. The Jersey Girls seemed to get a bit more vigour in their game as half time approached, they forced their hosts into a mistake and Bron Pollack made them pay with a try and conversion by Ali Giles with a minute left in the first half and it was 6-4.

When the second half opened, the visitors were put under pressure again and struggled to bring the ball out of their own half. With only a quarter of the game remaining, Condobolin struck again and it was 8-6 and that’s the way it stayed.

Sam Bailey looked likely during the game and Alison Giles was excellent with a great kick and chase game. However, Condo won the day and will play Eugowra next Sunday at Binalong at 11:30am.

The Jersey Girls will have to face off with Grenfell at Henry Lawson Oval in Grenfell next Saturday at 12:30.

Binalong’s Youth League team were up next in the hope of facing off against the Peak Hill Roosters next Sunday, as the game progressed; the Calves looked certain to do just that. Jeffrey Brown went in after only six minutes, Brown was excellent all day, tackled anything that moved, backed up and hardly put a foot wrong. However the Calves made a mistake from the ensuing kick-off and Eugowra made them pay to level at 4-all.

Next to cross was Corey Leggett from a brilliant Josh Barker pass and Binalong were up 8-4. In the 20^th minute, a rampaging Dylan Downey scored a crash-over try under the sticks, Dylan Arabin converted and it looked all one way at 14-4 with about nine minutes to go.

But Eugowra weren’t done with yet; they managed a try after another Binalong mistake to bring up the half time score of 14-10.

As the second half opened, the Binalong side did not look as confident, this was made worse by the fact that their dummy half Marty Smith was injured after just a few minutes and had to be assisted from the field. Rhys Butt took over as ball distributor, but the Golden Eagles were now in charge. Although their big men in Morris, Downey and Hughston were good, it was all one way traffic against Binalong in the second and Eugowra ran out worthy winners 28-14.

As a result, Eugowra will now meet Peak Hill at Binalong next Sunday and the Calves will play Grenfell at 1.40pm on Saturday September 5.

In the first grade fixtures, Grenfell Goannas accounted for Canowindra Tigers by 30-16 at Gooloogong Country Club and in a thrilling encounter at Condobolin; Peak Hill Roosters narrowly defeated a fast finishing Trundle by 26-24. Next Saturday Trundle will take on the Goannas in the Saturday game and Peak Hill will play the Brahmans at 2:00 pm at Binalong Rec Ground.

Bron Pollack