Orange Emus beat Dubbo Kangaroos in Blowes Clothing Cup first grade

That's the message Jamil Khalfan was preaching after his Orange Emus booked a place in the Blowes Clothing Cup first grade grand final qualifier.

Taking on a Dubbo Kangaroos side fresh off a miraculous comeback, the "home" Emus certainly didn't have an ideal week leading up to Sunday's clash.

Despite Emus finishing as the higher seed in the 3v4 matchup, the game had to be played at Bathurst's Ashwood Park after rain left Endeavour Oval unusable.

"That's just what the gods thought, that we weren't going to play at home," the fullback said after the game.

"They have a good couple of fields here and running rugby, which we like, so rather than playing somewhere that was just as muddy as ours, we chose here."

That strategy wasn't paying off for the first 20 minutes though, as Dubbo put the pressure on thanks to some strong line-out play and sloppy penalties by the Emus.

The Orange outfit wasn't punished though as Roos' Josh Bass would slot home just one of three penalty goal attempts in the first half.

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This gave the Emus the opening they needed, with Sam Greatbatch and Charlie Henley registering tries to their name. Sam Hunt managed to get one back for the Roos, before Henley went over once again on the stroke of half-time to see his side go into the break ahead 17-8.

"We went away from the forward pressure to start with," Henley said when asked what went wrong to begin with.

"We were a bit impatient in the 22 and once we settled down from that, we built momentum. When we're controlled and composed and take that ownership in the forwards, we're very hard to beat."

The second half was a slugfest, with neither side giving an inch.

Emus looked to have sealed the deal when Nigel Staniforth converted a penalty with 20 minutes to go, before Tim Beach snagged an intercept and ran the length of the field to make it a 20-15 game.

"We built ourselves into that game really nicely and we had our foot on the throat, but one sloppy pass let them back into it," Henley added.

From there on, Emus hardly had the ball, but solid work in defence never really gave Dubbo the scoring opportunity they needed, as it would remain a five-point margin at the final whistle.

Despite the tough loss, veteran Roos forward Shaun McHugh was proud of everything his team had achieved this season.

"We've spoken about effort all year and I think it's been a characteristic of this side and it showed again today," he said.

"We were coming home with a pretty wet sail, we just didn't have enough time left. There's been fight in us all year and there was fight in us again today."

After letting in "a couple of soft tries", McHugh said his side was excited to be within striking distance at the end, but that "it just wasn't meant to be."

"Now we get around the club because we've got three teams in the grand final and another one with a chance of making it," he said.

"It's disappointing because you'd like to be part of these games and not watching them, but you can't change that now."

Khalfan praised the Bulldogs club and president Phil Newton for hosting the game and had one departing message for those in attendance.

"They put on the bells and whistles for us and we'll see you back here in two weeks hopefully," he said.

Emus will now take on the Cowra Eagles for a place in the grand final against the Bulldogs.

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