It didn't necessarily come from as clinical a showing as Orange Emus' skipper Joel Urban was hoping for but he was nonetheless stoked his side did enough on Saturday afternoon to set up a Blowes Clothing Cup second grade decider date with Bathurst Bulldogs.
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The greens ultimately secured a 39-10 preliminary final victory over Dubbo but the win wasn't quite as convincing as that 29-point margin suggests, it took two tries inside the final five minutes for Emus to genuinely put the Kangaroos away.
But as Urban said, a win's a win. Especially when it's one that secures a sixth consecutive grand final appearance, and sets up a rematch of last year's decider with Bathurst Bulldogs too.
We've got a lot to improve on, for sure, but it's great to get that win and get ourselves a spot in the grand final.
- Emus captain Joel Urban
"It definitely didn't feel like we won by that much but those last two tries obviously pushed the scoreline out a bit, the margin doesn't really do Dubbo justice to be honest," Urban said.
"We've got a lot to improve on, for sure, but it's great to get that win and get ourselves a spot in the grand final because we were pretty disappointed after we finished third and we've done a good job to get through the elimination finals."
The biggest area for improvement, for Urban, is ball control.
The greens coughed up plenty of possession, particularly in the opening half, and they spent more time in Saturday's grand final qualifier without the ball as a result.
Their effort to largely hold the grinding Roos out was naturally stoic and they were forced to make the most of the opportunities they did create, when the greens managed to retain possession for any substantial period of time they turned it into points.
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"We didn't have a lot of ball in that first half so it was good to be leading at half-time and when we did hold on to it, get into our structure and build from that in the second half we were good," Urban said.
That half-time lead was a narrow one at 15-7.
Although it only took Emus five minutes to open the scoring through Jack Marchinton, who finished off a Dave Joseph break, the greens only had two more genuine scoring opportunities in the opening half, they took both.
The first was an Urban penalty goal that pushed the lead to 10 and the second was a Pete Brus try that finished a break from Harry Cummins on the stroke of half-time, which came after Josh Howarth had rolled over for Roos' first five-pointer.
The Dubbo side actually slashed that margin to just five not long after the break with a Ryan Johnston penalty goal and while Connor McGovern extended Emus' lead his try was cancelled out by Sam Clements' not long after, although the former was converted and the latter not.
With the score at 22-15 Scott Hubbard missed a 65th minute chance to push Emus' lead beyond a converted try, but Cummins gleefully did so 60 seconds later after breaking free from the resulting restart.
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After Louis Carr crossed Cummins set up Emus' last try too, once again breaking Roos' line before putting a deft grubber in for replacement winger Phil Johnson to dive on.
Saturday's defeat bounced the Dubbo side out in straight sets and skipper Jimmy Cleaver said the week prior's brutal, major semi-final defeat at Bulldogs' hands definitely took a toll.
He also admitted Roos' defensive effort wasn't up to scratch, particularly through middle where Emus' centres Joseph and Cummins cut them to shreds.
"We had five or so injuries in the second half [against Bulldogs] and everyone was pretty battered and bruised, I think it did take a toll to be honest," he said.
"But at the same time Emus, and Bulldogs the week before, took it up a notch and we didn't go with them so you have to give credit where it's due, it's definitely disappointing though.
"I think it was mainly down to a lack of execution on our part, especially defensively. We couldn't make our one-on-one tackles and Emus cut holes through us a bit, particularly through the centres."
- ORANGE EMUS 39 (Jack Marchinton, Pete Brus, Connor McGovern, Harry Cummins, Louis Carr, Phil Johnson tries; Joel Urban 2, Scott Hubbard conversions; Urban penalty goal) def DUBBO KANGAROOS 15 (Josh Howarth, Sam Clements tries; Ryan Johnston conversion; Johnston penalty goal)