Rob Lake moved from the forwards to play in the centres and scored four tries for the Narromine Jets against Group 11 premiers Dubbo CYMS yesterday, but it won’t be enough to earn them a place in the final series.
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After leading 22-18 at half-time the Jets trailed 28-22 and 28-26 before getting the money 30-28 in the closing stages.
They have now won their past four games (and five in all) but they will have to settle for sixth place at best behind CYMS (5th). The Jets play Nyngan and minor premiers Parkes in the final games while CYMS meet Parkes and then Cobar.
If CYMS and Narromine did happen to finish on equal points, CYMS would have a better for-and-against record and go into the elimination semi-final.
Jets captain-coach Troy McCarney said last night his players were over the moon with the way they are finishing the season.
“It was a brilliant win. They threw everything at us and we kept coming back. Rob Lake’s four tries were the result of great vision,” McCarney said.
“When he saw that something on he wanted the ball. He was just too big and strong and was my man of the match. Playing in the centres today was no big deal for him, he’s been there and done it before.
“Overall though, the forwards were again great. They charged on to the ball and the breaks came our way - that didn’t happen in the earlier part of the season.”
McCarney also paid tribute to the work load of lock Mitch Cale.
“We played four trial games and now 12 rounds of comp games and he’s never missed one minute of football. He’s a real workhouse and today he made 40 tackles,” the captain-coach said.
“The other good player for us today was fullback Cyris Riley. It was a really windy day but he never dropped one ball and was safe all day. Really good.”
On the other side of the coin, CYMS captain-coach Blake Tremain-Cannon was resigned to the fact that they will probably have to play sudden-death football all through the finals in a bid to retain their first grade title.
He was one of five regular first graders who missed the game - Alex Frail, Peni Naqua, Darren Toomey (all injured) and Nick Wilson who will be away on holidays.
“It certainly wasn’t one of our better days. We completed only 50 per cent of our sets and made some poor options on the last tackles,” he said.
“As a result we kept inviting them back and lacked talk and direction.
“They’re the bad points of the game. The good things I saw today was the form of our three under-18 players who played. Jordan Hay and Tommy Alchin in the forwards were two of our best while Charly Runciman did well.
“As always Luke Jenkins had a very good game.”
