The pre-season finals will be played under lights at the Bega ground on Saturday with play to start from 3pm for the league-tag. 

The matches will feature the Sharks and Cooma in first grade, while Bega claimed places in the 18s and ladies. 

Roosters ladies, 18s 

make finals

THE Bega Roosters’ under 18s and league-tag sides will contest the pre-season grand final after beating the Moruya Sharks on Sunday. 

However, the reserves and first grades were unable to overcome a “raging favourite” Sharks outfit Roosters president Garry Arkin said. 

The reigning premiers the Bega Chicks proved too strong for the Sharkettes. 

Arkin said the Sharkettes would be well served by Lana Badullovich with inside knowledge of the Chicks, but it didn’t pan out for the home side. 

“It took a while to settle in to their game and then their passing game started to fall in to place,” Arkin said. 

With former captain Kezie Apps making a move to full-contact, the Chicks were well led by Joccoaa Rogers, Arkin said. 

The Chicks opened up an excellent margin to take the game 32-4. 

The under 18s also provided the goods for the Bega club on Sunday. 

The Roosters were in excellent form to create a solid margin in a high-scoring game. 

Arkin said they “never took their foot off the pedal” to win 40-12. 

Meanwhile, the top two grades struggled against the massive Moruya Sharks squads. 

Arkin said the Sharks opened up a strong 12-0 lead early in the first grade. 

The Roosters consolidated 12-4, but the Sharks started piling on the points to burst to a 32-4 lead. 

However, the Roosters made an impressive turnaround in the dying minutes to finish at 32-16 in favour of the Sharks. 

Meanwhile in the reserve grade, Arkin said the Sharks line-up was “giant size”. 

“The Roosters fell to a giant sized Moruya team 38-14, but in doing so showed glimpses of better things to come,” Arkin said.

Tigers put 

claws in to 

Sea Eagles 

THE first showing of the Tathra league-tag squad, the Seagulls, was a highlight for the pre-season clash between Tathra and Eden on Sunday.

Coaches said it was the first time the women had played together and “were a few numbers short” for a match against the Tigers. 

Unfortunately for Tathra it showed, with the score blowing out in favour of the home side 60-4. 

However, the Seagulls played valiantly and will learn from the match. 

The Seagulls also became visibly more coherent as a squad as the game progressed. 

The progression stemmed the flow of points, but the damage had been done for Eden to claim an easy win. 

Meanwhile, in first grade Tathra opened well and looked assured of a win in the early stages. 

 With new coach Willie McDonald on board, and working through the ruck well, Tathra opened the scoring with two early tries. 

Tathra added a third, but was unable to convert. 

However, Eden consolidated with two tries of its own and at the first quarter break, the score was 16-12 in favour of the Eagles. 

In the following passages of play a number of unfortunate dropped balls and penalties saw most of the play going to the Tigers. 

The scoreline quickly blew out in favour of the home side as the Tigers piled on tries. 

Tathra retaliated just after the half time break, but the score was still in favour of Eden at 32-22. 

By the third quarter break, Tathra had began to tire and Eden proverbially put the boot in. 

A dispute over a penalty saw McDonald sent from the field for 10 minutes, which allowed Eden to take advantage of the numbers. 

The final score blew out to 46-22 in the Tigers’ favour.

Stallions 

trample Panthers

The Candelo/Bemboka Panthers made a valiant effort against one of Group 16’s powerhouse clubs on Sunday. 

Taking to the road against the Cooma Stallions, the Panthers came painstakingly close to a win. 

Roosters president Garry Arkin said the Panthers “were missing key players”, but were valiant in their efforts. 

Dickson and Irvin were both absent from the Panthers’ line-up Arkin said, which hurt the team on the day. 

However, going try-for-try with the powerful Stallions squad, the Panthers showed they have the mettle to stand up in the Group 16 competition. 

It was in the dying minutes of the game that Cooma was able to edge its way in front to secure a 26-22 win over the visitors.