On a day of high expectations when the club paid tribute to the second anniversary of the loss of fellow player Jeremy Papamau, a win was to be the best way to commemorate the occasion.

Players wore a specially designed strip in his favourite colour purple and any slight chance of securing a semi final spot was totally on the line in this game.

Signs weren’t good from the start as Karuah kicked off and regained the ball to immediately be on the attack 25 metres from the Cobras line. Two later they had posted their first try to lead 4-0.

James Foot put the Cobras back on track soon after. With plenty of defenders and work to do he managed to crash over out wide. A lovely Phil Badior conversion gave Claro the lead at 6-4.

Claro had momentum with prop Ben Bradley and backrower Lewis Keating making good metres and they were soon on the attack again, but a simple dropped ball in a scoring position resulted in several feeble tackle attempts and a try against the run of play to put Karuah ahead 10-6.

In the twinkling of an eye the game had changed. From the resuming set the Roos hooker ducked out of dummy half and put their centre in under the posts to increase the lead to 16-6.

Thankfully the visitors were making as many errors as Claro and Foot made them pay through some nice lead up work to send fellow centre Royden Stevens over in the corner.

Another fantastic conversion by Badior in blustery conditions from the opposite sideline closed the gap to 12-16 Karuah.

The same combination struck again from the resuming kick off. Foot broke through the defence and sent Stevens on a long run where he completely bamboozled the Roos’ fullback with a dummy then raced a further 30 metres to score and level the game at 16-16.

Claro were on top but the loss of five eighth Alex Barnet forced Foot to move from centre. Karuah’s hooker took advantage of the disruption and crossed for the Roos to lead 20-16 at the break.  

The Cobras started the second half well and looked certain to score the first try.

However, the Karuah centre intercepted a pass and raced 80 metres to score under the posts to stretch their lead to 26-16.

Brad Johnson, in his comeback game, made the next try his own. On the first tackle he burst through the Roos line making a 40 metre break and after one settling tackle again ran hard at the line to score the try to get Claro back in the game at 20-26.

Once again the failure to shut down a clearing kick was the undoing of the Cobras as the Roos fullback raced around and outsped all chasers to go 70 metres to score and again stretch their lead out to  32-20. 

With only 12 minutes to go the Karuah centre crossed for his second try to put the game out of reach for the Cobras.

Ben Bradley scored with five minutes remaining but it was all too late for the homeside and their semi-final hopes for 2018 were over with the final score being 38-26 in favour iof Karuah.

A big thank you to Todd Hurrell of CSM for his work to design and arrive a beautiful jersey for the day. It was a proud occasion. Thank you to Liz, Scarlett, Delilah, Evelyn and  for sharing the special day. Jeremy Papamau will always be in the hearts of the Cobras club.

I would like to take this opportunity to give a young Dungog bloke the praise he richly deserves. Brett Eyb take a bow, you are a fantastic young referee mate. 

The way you hold yourself during a match and communicate personally and respectfully to both sides shows in the response you receive from the players during the game. 

The fluent way in which you let the game flow and signal your decisions makes it a pleasure to watch any game you officiate. It can be very frustrating in D grade sometimes, but I know our players are delighted when on the rare occasions we are lucky enough to get a referee of your ability to control our game.

Just to put everyone in the picture of Bretts’ weekend, he refereed junior games at Bennett Park on Saturday morning, Clarence Town v Karuah D grade Saturday afternoon and South Newcastle v Cessnock in the Newcastle first grade on Sunday. 

He is very talented and I’m sure has bigger things ahead in the future. We certainly congratulate and wish him, his brother Jake, Jack and Aaron Fisher and all the other young locals progressing through the ranks, all the best.

Clarence Town 26:  Tries: Royden Stevens 2, James Foot, Brad Johnson, Ben Bradley. Goals: Phil Badior 3/5

Best Back: Jake Bell   

Best Forward:  Lewis Keating    

Supporters Award:  Ben Bradley    

Benchy:  Todd Hutton

Players Player: Lewis Keating