After a heated first-half exchange, the Merimbula-Pambula Bulldogs took the result over the Bega Roosters on Sunday.
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Erica Luff acknowledged the strong crowd at the Bega Recreation Ground with a Welcome to Country before the first grade fixture as the Roosters celebrated their Indigenous Round.
The occasion also marked 100 senior games for captain Scott Fuller.
The club, wearing dashing Indigenous jumpers designed by Steven Luff, made a rousing start with an early try to Jordan Gray-Balcomb, but play in the first half quickly became gritty and heated.
Some late hits on the halves saw a bit of push and shove before the Bulldogs fired back on the scoreboard through Trent Casey to lead 6-4.
Play broke down even further when both sides were pressuring for points and the half-time siren appeared to sound before officials were told to resume play as the timer had not gone off, sending players back out for a few tense extra minutes.
However, some stern words at half time in both camps saw some rugby league emerge in the second half as play settled into a better rhythm.
After some tough back and forth through the middle, the Roosters found their way through a long bomb into the right pocket for winger Bryce Philipzen to recover and score.
Fuller, Corey Thomas and Memphis Hennessy made some good metres through the middle, with the Roosters well served by additional size and utility off the bench.
Soon the club even found a numbers advantage after Corey Schafer was binned for a foul for tripping a Rooster.
The Bulldogs countered Bega's strength through the middle with outside speed where play featured around Billy Doneman and Luke Rixon, while Daniel Cronk, Jack McGuire and Grant Moon were left to handle the gruntwork through the middle.
With Bega trailing 10-8, Fuller found himself in the bin for 10 and just after the restart Ryan Casey found the line out of dummy half following a left motion by the Dogs.
The visitors jumped to a 16-8 lead before Shae Gray found a late option for Bega.
However, Trent Casey's second sealed the result with the Bulldogs kicking a late field goal for good measure to win 21-14.
Earlier, Bega's reserves had carded a breezy 30-0 result, while the league-tag favoured the Bega Chicks 28-6.
In other clashes, the Sea Eagles stormed home 54-28 over the Snowy River Bears.
A Callum Bower-Scott treble set the scene before Connor Carr and Declan Bower-Scott scored a pair of tries each in the second half.
The scoring frenzy also featured tries to prop Mitch Carter, Dillon Aldridge and Dylan Shaw, while Callum made a meal of his kicking game, nailing seven of his 10 conversion attempts to ramp up the scoreline.