Collegians will get the opportunity to defend their three-year-old Illawarra League title after grinding out a 24-12 prelim final win over Thirroul on Saturday in the Mojo Homes Illawarra Cup.
Rookie centre Ben Rumble finished with a hat-trick, grabbing two tries in the six minutes before halftime after both sides fought out a brutal nil-all slog through 34 minutes.
His second four-pointer, a bomb defusal turned 90-metre runaway try, proved the telling moment of the match, giving the Dogs a 14-0 lead on the stroke of halftime.
It continues a breakout season for the 18-year-old flyer who shapes as a key weapon on coach Nathan Fien’s push at a third premiership with Collies.
“It was unbelievable, he’s gone 80 metres in a prelim final against some awesome opposition,” Fien said.
“To have kick pressure coming at him, to have the composure to defuse it, step, then out-sprint a guy like (Butchers centre) Steve Marsters who was coming across… it’s pretty impressive stuff.
“He’s been a great find for us this year, he’s done the job, but it’s all another level next week and we need to knuckle down again.
“There’s a few sore bodies in the shed as you’d expect from a prelim final because it is a war and we’ve got some bruised bodies in there.
“This is what footy’s all about, this time of the year you want to be involved in these big games and that group I have in there, they thoroughly deserve it.”
Rumble also grabbed his side’s final try to put the match to bed after Thirroul twice fought their way back into the contest in a second stanza that saw two tries apiece.
Gruelling battle
It followed a gruelling opening 40 that required a Max Devlin penalty goal in the 34th minute to break a nil-all deadlock.
Rumble followed up with his quick-fire double to seize control the Dogs never surrendered having withstood an early onslaught.
“That first 20 minutes, I haven’t seen a a tougher game of footy at this level for a long time,” Fien said.
“I was very happy with the way we were able to hang in there, keep chipping away and get control of the game by halftime.
“We were trying to get a bit of control of the back and forth and when the opportunity came to take the two, the way the game was going, we just had to take it.
“If it went to halftime at 2-0 we’d have been happy with that, come out and backed ourselves to get the job done but I we got the rewards for that first 20 minutes is where we had to defend our line and turn Thirroul away.”
The rematch
It sets up a rematch of the 2019 decider – the last one played in the Illawarra League – that saw Collies see off the Devils by two points.
Fien will have at least one additional headache, with key forward Liam Cassidy limping from the field in the first half with an ankle injury and not returning.
“You have to give Cass every chance to get right, he’s the type of player you’ve got to give til kickoff,” Fien said.
“That’s what’s exciting about footy and this time of year and we obviously haven’t been able to get through to a grand final the last couple of years with the COVID situation.
“There are a lot of new players in the group and they’re all at different stages of their career and they’ve just got to harness it and know they’ll never get this opportunity again.
“If we can get the guys focused on that and believing in what we’ve done this year is going to be able to get it done for us next week, then I’m really confident we can play our best because we’re going to need to against Wests.
“They were phenomenal last week and they’re always a battle. Anything can happen, it’s a grand final, we’re excited to be there and really looking forward to the week ahead.”
Disappointing end for Butchers
It was a bitterly disappointing end to a minor premiership-winning campaign from the Butchers, who twice fought back hard into the contest with tries to Wayne Bremner and Harry Leddy.
Both gave the Butchers momentum but Cooper Bowen’s sin-binning early in the second stanza proved costly, with Jason Gillard crossing for the Dogs in the set that followed.
“Disappointing probably isn’t strong enough [to describe it],” coach Jarrod Costello said.
“We had a bit of good ball early but there were a couple of decisions that walked them up the park and gave them field position for their first two tries. Credit to [Collegians] they converted it into points, they’re a really good side.
“I’m really proud of the way we came back in the second half. Nothing went our way again, Coops got put in the bin.
“It was probably some gamesmanship, but they scored off the next set, they were smart enough to go straight back to where Coops was defending. It’s obviously really hard when you’re defending with 12 guys at that stage of the game.
“We had nothing fall our way for 80 minutes and we were still there fighting at the end so I’m really proud of our resilience but [we’re] just gutted.”
Mitch Jennings article courtesy of the Illawarra Mercury
Picture: Adam McLean