The 2020 West Entertainment Group Rugby League Nines competition came to an entertaining end on Saturday evening at Scully Park where Marius Street Family Dental was crowned champions.
Marius Street Family Dental was captained by North Tamworth Bears’ Scott Blanch.
The side had no current Narrabri Rugby League Football Club players on its roster, but did include a Blues 2017 Group Four Rugby League first grade grand finalist in Mitch Dening.
Dening and his Marius Street Family Dental teammates finished second on the WEG Nines ladder following the six regular season games which were played across three rounds.
They won four games which saw them finish four points below the Brenton Cochrane-captained undefeated minor premiers Carey’s Freight Lines.
On Saturday evening, those two teams won their respective semi-finals to set up a highly-anticipated grand final.
Carey’s Freight Lines defeated last-placed Shay Brennan Constructions 32-18 in semi-final one.
Former Blues captain-coach Cochrane scored a try in that game and set another up, and was named man-of-the-match.
In semi-final two, Marius Street Family Dental downed third-placed side JT Fossey 23-15.
Before the grand final was contested, a third-placed playoff match was played between JT Fossey and Shay Brennan Constructions.
Shay Brennan Constructions, which included Blues duo Daniel Jobson and Sam Sadler, had not won a game in seven previous attempts going into that match but came out on top as 19-18 winners against a JT Fossey side which included Boggabri Kangaroos’ Matt Gilham.
The grand final was a thrilling contest.
Marius Street Family Dental crossed for the first try of the game after just 90 seconds as Shuaib Rhodes-Swain registered the first points of the decider. Matt Wilson converted to put his side ahead 6-0.
Minutes later, Carey’s Freight Lines was forced to defend another set deep inside its own half but the side held strong to get the ball back.
It then charged down the other end and crossed for its first try of the decider through Cooper Thompson which made the score 6-4.
That quickly became 12-4 when Jack Rumsby scored Marius Street Family Dental’s second try 10 metres in from the right sideline, which Wilson converted in style.
Marius Street Family Dental entered the break with that eight-point lead, then extended its advantage to 16-4 two minutes into the second stanza with a Brett Jarrett try.
Sam Taylor crossed for Carey’s Freight Lines with four minutes left to play in the grand final but the side missed the conversion which saw the Cochrane-captained team trail 16-8.
The green and golds desperately needed to be the next side to score to have any shot of winning the grand final, but Jarrett crushed those hopes when he crossed for his second try of the contest with two minutes remaining. Wilson converted from the left sideline to make the score 22-8.
Carey’s Freight Lines refused to go down without a fight and went over for a five-point try which was scored by Ben Williams with six seconds remaining. He converted to add the extras but it was too little too late as the score finished 22-15 in favour of Marius Street Family Dental.
The competition’s Bottlemart man-of-the-series race also came down to the wire on the final night.
JT Fossey skipper Mitch Doring entered the semi-finals on 10 points, one ahead of Cochrane.
In their respective semi-finals, Doring polled two points while Cochrane was awarded three which saw them go into their final matches locked on 12 points.
Doring was named-man-of-the-match in his team’s third-placed playoff game loss which saw him earn three points, then in the decider Cochrane did not pick up any points.
That meant that Doring finished three points adrift of Cochrane on the final points tally to earn the competition’s top individual gong.
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