Tallan Egan scores winner for Lithgow under 18s against Dubbo CYMS

A lovely cut-out ball from halfback Latrell Fing to Richardson made 14-11 and it appeared the Fishies were on their way to the under 18s preliminary final.

But Lithgow had other ideas.

The Workies Wolves went short with the kick off and after successfully regathering the ball it was only a few players later before flying fullback Tallan Egan went himself and dived over after slicing through the defence.

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The four-pointer sparked wild celebrations among Lithgow players and their travelling fans and silenced the strong home crowd at Apex Oval.

After being mobbed by teammates, Egan brushed himself off and made things that little sweeter by nailing the conversion from out wide to ice a 17-14 win.

"That was incredible," the fullback said post-game.

"Everyone here is against us and it's good to get that win."

The fullback admitted the Lithgow huddle wasn't too positive after Richardson's try but you wouldn't have known it by the way he backed himself just minutes later.

"I was nervous, hey. But i saw a bit of space so I just dummied and took it. Took the opportunity and it felt good," he said.

"It was tough in that last huddle when they scored. I thought we were out of it but the boys put their heads up and realised we head two minutes left so that was good."

Dubbo CYMS entered the match as Group 11 minor premiers while Lithgow finished the regular season in second spot in Group 10 behind the dominant and unbeaten Orange Hawks.

As expected at finals time, it was a tough first half and the hosts entered the sheds with a 6-0 advantage.

The game came to life in the second stanza and the sides swapped tries to make it 10-all approaching the final stages.

With 10 go and with his side in attacking range, impressive Lithgow halfback Eli Morris opted for the field goal and his boot put the Wolves up by one.

From then on it was all CYMS and with halves Fing and Josh Townsend and lovely hooker Jodan Porter pulling the strings it felt like a matter of time until they'd cross.

It finally arrived with four minutes to go when Fing put Richardson over and CYMS celebrated like they had just scored the match-winner.

The jubilation when Egan - the younger brother of New Zealand Warriors NRL player Wayde Egan - went over soon after was another level higher.

The performances of the under 18s side this year are a good indication of where Lithgow is at.

After winning just six games last season and getting knocked out in the opening week of finals, the under 18s showed real development this season and that could be said for the other grades as well.

The first grade side improved on its 2022 record this year while the league tag team went from recording just one win to a place in the finals.

The league tag outfit was beaten by Forbes in Saturday's elimination final while reserve grade didn't make finals, leaving the juniors to now fly the flag.

"I'm proud of the boys. It's a bit better than last year, which is good, there's that improvement," Egan said.

"We're proud to represent the club and be the only ones left.

"I reckon we can (win the premiership). We'll have a week off, train hard and then get back into it."

Lithgow will now meet the winner of next weekend's game between Forbes and Mudgee in the preliminary final while Dubbo CYMS takes on Orange CYMS for the right to meet Hawks.

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