By Tania Phillips and Andrew O’brien
Illness and a poor start to the game proved costly but the gritty and determined young Cowboys never gave in despite going down 38-24 to Gatton Hawks in the Toowoomba Rugby League A Grade Preliminary Final at Clive Berghofer Stadium, Toowoomba on Sunday.
Down 28-nil five minutes into the second half and without their captain Mitch Wilson, lost to illness, the young Cowboys fought-back to 28-24 before eventually going down by 14-points and crashing out of the finals series one game earlier than anyone wants to.
This leaves the Gatton and Valley’s to fight it out in this weekend’s grand final at Berghofer Stadium with the Cowboys reserves flying the flag for the club in the final.
Cowboys coach Col Speed said things started to go wrong even before the side took to the field for the game on Sunday.
“From where we started pre-game when captain Mitch Wilson walked up to me and told me he was very ill and didn’t know how long he was going to last – he’d caught a viral infection,” Speed said.
“To witnessing a train wreck in the first 25 to 30 minutes – it might have been nerves or they were in-awe, I’m not quite sure, but then to turn it around in the second half to be within four points. It was a massive gutsy performance and a credit to them.
“It was tough but I’m really proud of the boys and what they’ve done.”
The gutsy Wilson lasted 12 minutes before he was too sick and weak from fluids lost to the virus to go on.
“People thought it was the groin injury that he’s had but it wasn’t that he had some viral infection but of all days – it could have been November – January. It was very sad.
“A lot of times he has got us over the line and we were missing that. Our defence wasn’t good enough in the first 25 minutes.”
However while it was a tough end to the season Speed said the whole year has been a remarkable performance for the young side.
“I think that’s the key factor that Warwick and the whole community can be very proud of is what they have achieved all year. It is a big performance for not only a young side but we are also on a lot lower budget than a lot of other clubs as well,” Speed said.
“We probably didn’t expect to get this far last year – we over-achieved then and this year we’ve probably over-achieved to a degree again. The other thing is we have to assess, in particularly our depth. We have to have more depth in our squad, the injury toll at the back end of the season took it’s toll. It’s something the club’s got to look at in the future.”
Asked if he was staying on, the coach chuckled said “that’s a question that hasn’t been answered yet.”
While his first-grade charges have ended their season Speed, voted TRL coach of the year, now has to turn around and prepare for the Country v City match in two weeks time.
Warwick had good field position early but Gatton took advantage of a Cowboys penalty and went down inside Warwick’s end zone for the first time and Nick Short fell on a Cowboys mistake in their in goal are to get the first points on the board 6-0 after 5 minutes.
Then Gatton’s Tye Gray scored the easiest try right on Warwick’s try line when he went into dummy half after Nick Short nearly went into touch. Gray simply picked the ball up and went the blind with not much space and placed the ball down. Gatton 10-0.
In the 20th minute. Gatton’s Travis Turnbull beat three Cowboys defenders to score a good individual try Gatton 16-0. The Hawks got the start they were looking for and they deserved the lead.
A great backline movement with a magic pass to get Cameron Bundock to score and get Gatton to a 20-0. Joel Hughes kicked the sideline conversion 22-0 after 26 minutes. Half time 22-0.
Gatton started where they left off in the first half as they capitalised on an early Warwick mistake for Tom Luhrmann to score after he pounced on a loose ball to dodge and weave his way from 40 metres out to score. Gatton 28-0.
Then, finally the Cowboys orchestrated a good try when Tui Opolapu barged over close to the posts to get Warwick on the board. The Cowboys had a spring in their step when Ben Sullivan scored a good try off Harry Sullivan Gatton 28-12 with 28 minutes remaining.
Over the next period, Warwick lifted again in intensity and were rewarded when Caleb Murphy strolled over out wide and he kicked his own try’s conversion to make it a 10 point ball game. 28-18.
Warwick got back into the match with their fourth consectative try when Tui Oloapu gave a wonderful off load to Ben Sullivan who darted towards the Gatton posts only to off load to Oloapu to score beside the posts 28-24.
It was an amazing stage of the game. Warwick were very good in their execution and really had a crack. But Gatton dug deep and realised that they needed to perform to win this match.
Then the try of the match when Gatton’s Leonard Thomas made a break on his 40 metre and linked with Nick Short and Tye Gray for a try out wide. 32-24 Gatton with under 10 minutes remaining.
