As far as slumps go, it wasn’t an overly protracted one – a 200-minute blip in which the longstanding schoolyard bully suddenly looked vulnerable.
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Lucky winners over Narrabri two weeks ago, touched up by Gunnedah last round and tested by Werris Creek in the first half at the Creek on Saturday, North Tamworth emerged from their short-lived funk in devastating fashion in the second half against the Magpies.
The Bears scored 44 points to nil after the break, in a 58-10 win that their captain-coach Scott Blanch said was a “definite” return to peak form. “We can take a lot out of that,” he said, “and I think the boys were upbeat and confident again. So that’s what it’s all about.”
In crossing for eight second-half tries – four of which were scored by Blanch in another commanding display – Norths rid themselves of the lethargy that had infected them in their previous two matches and for part of the first half against Werris Creek.
Down 14-0, the Magpies responded with tries in quick succession to fullback Harlee Millgate and replacement Michael Saunders to trail 14-10 at the break.
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But while the Bears regained their mojo, the nice momentum the Magpies had built in their previous three matches – wins over Dungowan and Gunnedah and then a golden-point loss to the Roosters at Kootingal – has gone. The difference in the demeanour between the two sides for much of the second stanza could not have been more stark.
In the time it took North Tamworth’s players to travel to Werris Creek, one team’s form, on the eve of the finals, was resuscitated while the other team is in need of resuscitation.
Five-eighth Blanch, in his first season coaching the Bears, acknowledged the go-forward his pack gave the side after the break, and they deserve his nod. But it was Blanch, the leader of Group 4’s best-and-fairest standings ahead of this round, who fought hardest to reinvigorate the side.
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“We’ve been a bit down in confidence the last couple of weeks, and we’ve had a bit of a dip in form,” he said. “And I just asked at halftime that we individually give 100 per cent in what we do, and we all sort of folded into that mould and that second half was pleasing.”
Blanch said getting up “mentally and physically” for the Bears’ win over the previously undefeated Roosters on July 8 had taken a toll on the team.
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"To our credit today, to the boys’ credit, in that second half we just had real confidence in our play and we rolled our sleeves up,” he said.
North Tamworth 58 (S Blanch 4, Z Nigro 2, C Hunt, R Clegg, R Ingram, S Wadwell, J McManus; McManus 6, Clegg goals) d Werris Creek 10 (H Millgate, M Saunders tries; S Berry goal)
