CHAOTIC would be the best way to describe the last 15 minutes of Sunday's Group 11 under-18s major semi-final.
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The match, won 31-30 by Macquarie, had everything - a breakaway early leader, a comeback, another comeback, extra time, more extra time and a result which nobody knew was a result.
In the end it was the Raiders who inflicted CYMS' first loss of the 2013 season, booking themselves a grand final spot and condemning the Fishies to a sudden-death preliminary final against Forbes this Sunday.
Warren Dodd was the hero for the Raiders, scoring a try, booting five conversions and slotting the winning field goal.
"I had two earlier shots and they got in my face so I didn't really get a clean look," Dodd said.
"I didn't even know this one was on, I just got the ball and had a bit of space and decided to have a crack."
In a comical scene, none of the players, nor the officials involved, knew the field goal ended the match, with both sides rushing back to restart play.
It was only after play had re-started that word got to the referee, who then blew full-time.
After a tight opening 10 minutes which saw Macquarie lead 6-4 the Raiders skipped away in the middle stages to establish an 18-4 lead.
But CYMS didn’t go unbeaten through 14 rounds for no reason and they fought back hard with tries to Brayden Carney and Tom Field ensuring their side would trail by just two at half-time.
They extended their advantage in the second stanza, with three tries giving them a 30-18 buffer before Macquarie hit back with two late tries, the last in the final 70 seconds, to send the match to golden point.
The Raiders had the better of the extra time period but bombed a couple of chances to end the match before Dodd finally came up with the goods.
“I had no idea what the rule was but I’m happy with the outcome,” Macquarie coach Greg Edwards said.
“When Warren kicked the field we were just yelling for the boys to get back and get ready for a short kick-off.
“The end was a bit funny but I thought the game was a bloody good game of football. They’re two good sides and I think we deserved that today.
“We’ve been the only side to really push CYMS this season and we got one back on them today.
“I’d be surprised if we’re not playing them in the grand final.”
For CYMS mentor Wayne Sing, the loss came down to goalkicking and simple errors.
“We scored six tries to five but we missed some shots at goal and when you look how close it ended up those kicks were important,” he said.
“There were times too when we got back in front that we made some silly mistakes with the ball in bad areas of the field and Macquarie made us pay for that.
“We can play a lot better than we did today but Macquarie did well.
“They made us pay and now we have to turn up and put in a better performance against Forbes next week.”
DUBBO MACQUARIE 31 (Warren Dodd, Jack Kelly, Luke Kennedy, Jordi Holmes, Daniel Pracy tries; Dodd 5 goals, field goal) def DUBBO CYMS 30 (Mitch Dunlop, Brayden Carney, Marshall Sing, Tom Field, Ben Marlin, Craig Field tries; Kaide Rapley 2, Carney goals)