THE mighty Medowie Marauders are glory bound after taking the shovel to the Cooks Hill Brown Snakes at No. 2 Sportsground on Saturday in a dominant 23 to 0 display.

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It was do or die for both teams in the elimination final and the Medowie men rose to the occasion with some bone rattling defence and blistering attacking raids that has seen them proceed to the last waltz this weekend.

From the first whistle it wasn’t to be the Brown Snakes’ day with the ball failing to go the required 10 metres from the kick-off.

The error immediately gave the Marauders an opportunity to kick start their offensive with Adam Beehag, Zion Takarua, Dan Collins and Jordan Byfield leading the charge into the Snakes’ redzone.

Under pressure, the Brown Snakes were pinned for hands in the ruck and when Medowie opted for the scrum their pack went to work linking phase play that saw big lock Adam Beehag cross the chalk.

The kick was wayward and Medowie went up 5 to 0.

At the restart Cooks Hill composed themselves and came out hard and fast, but the Marauders raised to the challenge and were able to shut down the Snakes with some shattering hits.

With the ball now back in hand the Medowie men found themselves up another try when Orisi Vosuqa flew through untouched from 40 out off a Jessey Bridge short ball.

It was 15 to 0 soon after when player-coach Tim Lancaster darted off the back of the scrum and linked with flanker Jordan Byfield for the try just before the end of the half.

At the restart Lancaster ordered his troops to maintain the defensive pressure and it paid off with Medowie awarded a penalty that Captain Eric Tolhurst slotted to take scores to 18 to 0.

Medowie then cleared the benches injecting some fresh legs into the match and it paid dividends when replacement halfback Daniel Murphy spotted a mismatch and sent centre Taniela Rabolalele through several defenders for a try.

The scores were 23 to 0 and that’s how it would stay as the Marauders steadied the ship and repelled wave after wave of Cooks Hill attack.

Player-coach Tim Lancaster praised the whole squad who played a unified brand of rugby that was able to neutralise the Snakes attacking venom.

“Our defence and set pieces really won us the match today,” said Lancaster.

“Moving forward there are always aspects of our game we need to tidy up, however we’ll get to training next week and fine tune them leading into the last dance!”

Best on ground went to winger Orisi Vosuqa who pulled off the hit of the year and put his body on the line all game.

The Marauders now line-up this Saturday in the Grand Final against the Waratahs at No. 2 Sportsground at 4:20pm in what will be a highly charged clash of the ages.

For ticket information and streaming of the match head to https://www.facebook.com/MarauderRugby.

By Mitch LEES