Half way through the season you never would have looked at Paterson River rugby league team and thought of them as Grand Final contenders.
But it all went up hill for the River after their second win of the season over Abermain in round 10. After that it was a winning streak right up to the semi-finals (not counting the controversial draw with Stroud in round 13).
The last time Paterson came face to face with Swansea was the semi-finals a fortnight earlier when Swansea walked all over them with a 72-12 win.
This game however was quite different.
The first half was very even between the teams with both Swansea and Paterson completing their sets and receiving their fair share of penalties each.
But it was not until 18 minutes left in the first half did Paterson open the scoring with Corey Hoffman diving through what seemed like a impenetrable Swansea defensive line to score next to the posts.
Paterson’s forwards, consisting of Craig Edwards, Scott Pappworth and Billy Curry, were to praise for the try with relentless pushing up the left side of the Swansea defence.
Swansea were next to try with 12 minutes left, but were unsuccessful in their conversion, leaving Paterson in front at 6-4.
Swansea started to gather momentum after that scoring another three tries with only one successful conversion.
When the 40 minutes was up it seemed that Paterson were finished, but as the old saying goes “It’s not over ‘till it’s over”.
Dean Jones was second to score for Paterson with only 12 minutes remaining.
That, along with Grant Jackson’s golden boot Paterson started to fire up again, only needing one more try to be equal 18 with Swansea.
It was number 14, Jason Smith to deliver, scoring right on the side line, not wanting to make it easy for the kicker.
Grant on the other hand, was not fazed and kicked it straight between the posts with a somewhat complacent ease.
And why shouldn’t he be? Kicking three from three under pressure at the grand final. I take my hat off.
With two minutes to go it looked as if the game was going to go into golden point and Paterson’s first chance at a grand final in 38 years but then, disaster struck.
At the end of Paterson’s set and with only a minute to go, a miss-timed kick from Daniel Farley who had a great game playing second row, allowed Swansea to steal the ball and make a charge running 50 metres to score directly under the posts bringing the score to 24-18.
Overall, a successful season and for a team that’s just starting up again to make it to the grand final is an amazing achievement.
The team consists of: fullback Michael Roberts, winger Grant Jackson, centres Andrew Roberts and Dean Jones, winger Michael Bellamy, five eight Mitchell White, half back Darrin Smith, front row, Craig Edwards and Greg Curry, hooker Scott Pappworth, second row Jason Mitchell and captain coach Scott Mitchell and lock Brad Smith. Reserves Jason Smith, Corey Hoffman, Daniel Farley, Ryan Winkler and Jai Moore.
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