Krystie McKenna with the ball.
The Burrangong Bears were virtually assured of a place in the Women’s League Tag Grand Final against Bungendore on September 26th 2020 before last Saturday’s game against the Rooettes from Gunning. The Burrangong side started strongly and met some stout defence from Gunning, however Burrangong’s Annika Picker set about spoiling the Rooettes day. The Bears threw the ball around in attack and defended strongly and had a better kicking game. Abbie Grant put in a lot of effort for Burrangong and the Rooettes started to give away penalties, the Bears went in after 10 minutes, Annika Picker converted for a 6-0 lead. Indeed, Picker then ran 60 metres absolutely shredding the defence to score a second try for her team, she converted and the Bears led 12-0.
The penalty count was starting to mount against Gunning as half time approached which spoiled an otherwise good recovery by the Rooettes who were able to exert some pressure on the home side. The girls went to the break with the Bears in front 12-0. Shortly after the re-start the Burrangong girls made a mistake and gave the visitors possession close to the line and the Rooettes capitalised, couldn’t convert and it was 12-4. Sara Lang for the Bears went in hard and it paid dividends with a try and Annika Picker did the honours again and it was 18-4.
However, Krystie McKenna was determined to make a line break which was successful with a try for Gunning in the right corner. The conversion was unsuccessful and this brought up the full time score of 18-8. It was evident that a bit of ill-feeling had crept into the game, brought about by frustration, a couple of half-hearted punches were thrown and the referee sent one of the Burrangong players to the bin for ten. With Bungendore #1 side defeating their #2 side 24-6, Burrangong will now play the Tigerettes #1 in the Grand Final next Saturday at Mick Sherd Oval in Bungendore.
Bayley Loughhead slips a pass away for Gunning.
In the George Tooke Shield men’s game, Marty Smith took only minutes from kick-off to run virtually the length of the field to score wide out. No conversion and the visitors led 4-0 and the tries kept coming for Gunning. Sean Beudeker was slicing the Bears defence to shreds and he was ably assisted by 5/8 Bayley Loughhead. Some feeling was creeping into this game as well and by half time the Roos had run up a 30-0 lead.
James Dorahy and Sam Ingram tried hard for Burrangong but defending with a staggered line gave the Roos plenty of holes to run through. When the game started again after the break the visitors struck with another try to lead 36-0.
It was at this point that emotions boiled over and a massive fight broke out and the referee ordered a halt to play with Gunning leading 36-0. Next Saturday the Grand Final will be held at Bungendore where the home side will play the Gordon Highlanders in the 2020 decider.
These two sides had a close match last Saturday with the undefeated Tigers prevailing 16-12, so next week could be anyone’s game to win. The match kicks off at 2.00pm.
AFL The ANU Griffins with 13.7-85 were too strong for The Cats 6.6-42 and the Yass Roos 12.15-87 overpowered Murrumbateman 3.6-24, ANU will progress to the Grand Final on Saturday week while Yass will face off with the Southern Cats next weekend for the right to meet ANU in the decider. RG