By Tania Phillips
With one week to go in the regular competition the Warwick Cowboys have booked a home semi final for this year’s Toowoomba Rugby League Hutchinson Builders A Grade competition.
But despite a big day for the club on Sunday at Father Ranger Oval, with the Under-19s and undefeated Reserves continuing on their merry way with wins against the tough Gatton Hawks, a win and the minor premiership slipped through the A grade team’s fingers.
Cowboys A grade coach Col Speed said it would take an unlikely win by Pittsworth over the strong and experienced Gatton side for the young Cowboys line-up to regain the minor premiership and competition lead following their 32-16 loss to the Hawks on Sunday.
The Cowboys now face another tough game against Dalby on Saturday night at Dalby Rugby League ground while Pittsworth are new competition leader Gatton’s final opponent before the finals.
However despite now experiencing two losses in their past three games after remaining undefeated through 15 rounds, the Cowboys are still assured of second place on the ladder, a home semi-final and the double chance.
Speed said it was a case of not starting against Gatton – a problem that has plagued them for most of the season.
“It was a good day for the club, the 19s did really well, they had a good win and I was very happy for them,” he said.
“The reggies continued their unbeaten record which is fantastic and we beat ourselves unfortunately. You’ve got to give credit to Gatton though, they are up for the game. We, mentally, were a little bit flat in some areas – we have to work on that.
“We got off to a bad start but we clawed our way back into the game just before half time when it became 14-10 and I was very confident going into the second half with the wind that we had at our backs. There were just a few things that were very frustrating. The effort was there, I can’t fault them on that. It was just the execution and the impatience within the attack zones. Not going to the right areas. It’s a massive learning curve for us again but we just can’t keep writing it off as a learning curve. At some stage we’ve actually got to learn from it. I thought we did against Wattles but we still need to work on a few things in particular our game management when we get into a good position. The other thing is we’ve got to improve coming out of our own end as well. We’ll overhaul that, have a look at that. We’ve got some really good feedback which has been really good.”
The Cowboys have been the form club of the year thanks to the efforts of what is essentially a young group of players across both the top grades and to the efforts of the first and reserve grade coaches. Some of the first grade side’s oldest players are in their mid-twenties and yet they have mixed it with sides that are older, bigger and have been together longer this year.
“I think it was our best defensive effort of the year when we played Gatton earlier in the year,” Speed admitted.
“That wasn’t there this time, we were very disappointed with our defence in the first half and made that known in the dressing room. It’s something we improved on in the second half. But we had certain players out Nick Chapman didn’t play, Tom Bell was out. Our injury list was getting a bit long but also we had Tui Oloapu and Pat Conn back and some doors opened up for some other people. That’s what we have to look at – giving opportunities to some other people, the only way they are going to get better playing semi-final footy is to play the teams that have had that experience and we’ve got to learn from that. We’ve got two 20 year old hookers and halves. The majority of our blokes, the oldest are around 24-25.”
However, he said all the players have pride in their game and the feedback is good and positive and the team is ready to move on and put a plan together.
“We know what’s in front of us now, we’ve got a semi final at home and that will be on a Sunday,” he said.
First up they have Dalby on a Saturday night at Dalby.
“It’s another tough one,” he laughed.
“They’d couldn’t have helped us out with the draw and given us an easy one in the last one but it doesn’t alter the ladder – unless Pittsworth comes in with a miracle against Gatton.”
A grade Gatton 32 d Warwick 16.
• Warwick tries: Jeffrey ROSS 32, Not available 38, Jeffrey ROSS 79. Conversions: Caleb Murphy 2/3.
• Reserve Grade: Warwick 30 d 10: Warwick tries: Lance MCGRADY DENNISON 11, Joseph WAGNER 36, Carl GALE 42, Not available 46, Joseph WAGNER 50. Conversions: Matthew Henry 5/5.
• Under 19 Cowboys 20 d Gatton 16.
