WITH a place in the finals on the line, last weekend’s local derby at Coronation Park between the Macksville Sea Eagles and the Nambucca Roosters produced all the passion and top notch football the large crowd had come to see.

The first ovation from the gathered footy fans was for local man Tommy Reynolds, a former mascot for both teams, when he led players onto the field.

The home side were first to put points on the board when Logan Jones employed some fancy footwork to get past the Macksville defenders and got over the line for a try to be converted by Tyronne Roberts-Davis.

Within 10 minutes Jones played a major role in the next Roosters try, with the delivery of a well placed kick to his captain, Zac Johnson, who got the ball to Beau Langford for a try in the corner, not converted.

Macksville struck back hard with Andrew Blair making big metres deep into Roosters territory.

A tough clash of the forwards ensued resulting in a marvelous passage of play instigated by Macksville halfback
Shane Davis-Caldwell that resulted in him capitalising on his own good work to cross the line in the corner and give the visitors their first points of the match, not converted.

The Roosters worked hard in response to the Macksville points, however Nambucca’s Ryan Taylor, Brodie Simon, Khan Jarrett and Paul Bell were evenly matched by Macksville’s Matt Hyland, Sam Shields, Billy Cockbain and Damien Carriage.

With halftime looming and both sides battling to get more points on the board before the siren, Macksville found space in the Roosters right edge and Brodie Bartlett got across the line, not converted, ending the first half with a scoreline of 10-8 in favor of the Roosters.

Early in the second half Nambucca’s Robbie Smith scored a try at the end of a long run that has almost become a trademark for this young utility player, converted by Roberts-Davis, leaving the home side now eight points in front.

Both teams knew that victory would only come by focusing on playing good football and the second half continued in that spirit.

Beau Langford scored his second try of the match at the end of a great team effort across the paddock and the boot of Tyronne Roberts-Davis pushed the lead out to 28-8.

The Macksville Sea Eagles never took their foot off the pedal and Fin Welsh would cross the line for Macksville, converted, finishing the game 24-14 in favor of the Nambucca Roosters.

Sadly for the home side, the Roosters hooker Jai Waddy was taken from Coronation Park by ambulance due to a significant injury to his knee.

Roosters Coach Warwick Jones has some work to do as he looks like heading into this Saturday’s Elimination Semi Final against Coffs Harbour without the pivotal Waddy on his roster.

The Nambucca Roosters are hosting the Elimination Finals this Saturday at Coronation Park.

In other games at Coronation Park on the weekend, Macksville defeated Nambucca convincingly in the U/18s, coming out on top 42-14.

In the Reserve Grade it was the Nambucca Roosters winning 18-14 in a thriller despite a courageous Macksville second half comeback.

By Mick BIRTLES and Gary JOHNSON