TEMORA’S final hopes rests with the team that struck them a near-fatal blow at Nixon Park on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Junee held the Dragons scoreless in the mud and the 18-0 loss leaves them a win and percentage outside the top five.
It means in order to make the finals for the first time since 2008, the Dragons can’t afford another slip up in their upcoming games against Brothers and Cootamundra and also need results to go their way.
Albury is the only team they can displace and the Thunder have games against high-flying Junee and Gundagai after the bye to play out the season.
If they win either it will end Temora’s chance of making the top five.
Temora captain-coach Daniel Fitzhenry said his team struggled to make any ground in the wet conditions.
“We just couldn’t get out of our own end,” Fitzhenry said.
“They handled the conditions better than we did, got out of their own end really well in the second half.”
Fitzhenry believes his team’s poor for and against will prove costly.
On the other hand, Junee went one step closer to securing third place and a second chance in the finals.
The win keeps them a point clear of Young, who they will play in the final round before the finals.
The undermanned team, who have six players backing up from reserve grade and where without captain-coach Matt Hands, had plenty of opportunities to break the deadlock in the first half.
However the second half saw a change of fortunes and the 7-3 penalty count against the Diesels started to turn.
Peter Little opened the scoring after 48 minutes off the back of three back-to-back sets.
He strolled past Scott Bowden to score and set Junee to the path to victory.
Stand-in skipper Trent Schubach was impressed with how his team responded to a lacklustre opening 40 minutes.
“A couple of unforced errors didn’t help us but we built a bit of pressure with a few line drop outs there but I am pretty happy with the boys,” Schubach said. “We defended well, keep them to nil for the whole game.
“A bit of muddy footy didn’t help our completions and we got the win in the end.”
After a loss against an undermanned Southcity line-up last week, Schubach thought an improved kicking game created more opportunities.
“Our kicking game was a lot better and our halves really controlled the game,” he said.
“We got a lot of repeat sets, held them under pressure and the pressure to points.”
A penalty goal to Cameron Hands extended the lead before two tries in two minutes to Tom Brandon and Daniel Foley saw the scoreline blow out in the last five minutes.
