By Gary Holmes
Last Saturday the First Grade and League Tag teams travelled out to Oberon to take on the Tigers in what could only be described as balmy winter conditions.
Unfortunately, the Youth League boys had to forfeit their match to Manildra on Sunday with numbers depleted due to injuries and work commitments.
Following are the match reports from Saturday.
LEAGUE TAG
Latest Stories
This match was crucial for both teams as their top eight aspirations were hanging in the balance.
Oberon came out of the blocks first and scored two early unconverted tries in front of a big local crowd.
Saturday was a big day for the Oberon club as they had a full day of footy including their juniors and their annual CanAssist Charity Round.
The Girlannas fought back through two smart individual tries to Chelsea Harveyson and then a long-range effort from Zoe Gavin.
Grenfell held a handy 16-8 lead at half-time, but they took control of the match in the 10 minutes after the break via two long distance converted tries to Faith Smith and Marley Loader.
The final 20 minutes saw the Tigers hammer Grenfell’s line and it eventually paid dividends with a try in the final minute of play.
Emily Brenner kicked four goals from five attempts and the final score read Grenfell 28 Oberon 12.
Best for Grenfell were Marley Loader, Ella McRae (Player’s Player), Chelsea Harveyson, Emily Brenner, and Faith Smith.
FIRST GRADE
The Goannas were up against it from the “get go” in this match only having 13 players turn up to play the form team of the competition on their home turf and on one of their biggest days of the year.
Grenfell made a contest of it in the first half and went to the break down by 24-4, their try coming from a Michael Smith cut-out pass to Jaxon Greenaway who scored out wide.
Although the floodgates opened in the second half this was a gutsy effort by the Goannas as they had no bench and several players stayed out on the field whilst injured.
An indication of the dominance of Oberon in the second half was that in the 30 minutes after the break Grenfell held the ball for a grand total of 9 tackles and this included one set of 6.
Final score Oberon 66 Grenfell 4.
This was a big effort by the entire 13 players, but special mention goes to Isaac Jones, Michael Smith, Jim Hazell (Player’s Player), Jai Purdie, Ty Ashe, and Harrison Starr.
UPCOMING MATCHES
This Sunday at Lawson Oval the Goannas will host the Blayney Bears in Youth League (11.20am) and League Tag (12.40pm).
There will be NO First-Grade game due to Blayney’s withdrawal from the competition in early May.
The canteen will be in operation and the gate entry is $5.
The weekend of the 5/6 July will see the Goannas have a bye in all three grades.
On the following Sunday (13 July) the Goannas are off to Eugowra to take on the Golden Eagles in all three grades.
