Bathurst Bulldogs have set up a mouth-watering Westfund Ferguson Cup grand final showdown with cross-city rivals CSU, producing the goods in front of a vocal home crowd and downing West Wyalong in Saturday afternoon’s preliminary final.
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In a hard-fought affair the Bulldogs outlasted West Wyalong and roared home in the second half, winning 19-10 to earn a decider berth and bounce the minor premiership-winning Redbacks out of the finals in straight sets.
West Wyalong hit the lead early through Rebecca Ball and held their 5-nil advantage at quarter-time, before Mel Waterford – who not long ago was fearful she’d miss the back end of the season through injury – dived over in the corner in the second period to lock the clash up at 5-all.
The clash stayed on level pegging until after the half-time break, with Bulldogs skipper Mandy Scott catching West Wyalong napping to push her side ahead.
Kate Gullifer nailed the conversion to give the hosts a 12-5 lead, but Rhylee Lemon’s 27th minute try pushed the Redbacks back within a try at 12-10.
Claudia McLaren found space from a scrum just two minutes later, scoring Bulldogs’ third and Gullifer’s conversion extended the home side’s lead to nine points.
They held on to that through the final quarter, neither side added any more points.
“We’re in it for the win and a shout out to all the girls in the team today, they all did really well. We used everyone and we needed everyone to get the job done,” Scott said.
“Wyalong are always quick over the ball and they’re hard, so we’ve got to fight to get every inch, every ball, everything.”
The nine-point win was Bulldogs’ second over the Redbacks this year, and they’ll now face a CSU side they’re yet to best in 2018.
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The two sides have faced off just once, the red-hot students running out 31-24 victors back in round six.
The grand final will once again be played between the Blowes Clothing Cup third and second grade deciders, at Endeavour Oval.
- BATHURST BULLDOGS 19 (Mandy Scott, Claudia McLaren, Mel Waterford tries; Kate Gullifer 2 conversions) def WEST WYALONG REDBACKS 10 (Rhylee Lemon, Rebecca Hall tries)
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
