AFL North West: Nomads beat Roos 12.15 (87) to 10.8 (68) | Ben Mitchell

The third-placed Roos went into the match basically without a bench.

Their one bench player had a torn ACL, Mitchell said, rendering him "useless".

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Second-placed New England had a full contingent of players. The final score was 12.15 (87) to 10.8 (68).

Mitchell said: "I'm not disappointed with the effort at all. I rate the Nomads as the best, if not one of the best two sides in the comp.

"And a couple-goal loss to them, I thought it was a great effort from our boys."

Mitchell said he was "just really impressed with the way we're playing footy".

"Win, loss or draw, our attitude has been really good - and it's been reflected in the scores so far," he added.

Tamworth "stuck to" their game plan, he continued, with "the young fellas" again "playing pretty good footy".

"It's certainly not a four-quarter performance," he said. "But we showed that if we play the way we wanna play ... it can certainly match it against them."

The Roos' leading goalscorer, Shane Lindsay, kicked five majors on Saturday, in what was his last game for the side.

He returns to Brisbane this week after his two-year work contract with Coles ended.

"He's been super reliable for us," Mitchell said. "So it's gonna be a big loss and something that we're gonna have to address next week."

In Inverell, the Saints beat the Bulldogs by 37 points: 12.18 (90) to 8.5 (53) while Moree-Narrabri forfeited against the Swans.

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