Country Championships: Central North beat New England 26-14 in Richardson Shield 3rd/4th play-off

The Kookaburras were left to rue missed opportunities on Saturday after Western Plains scored after the bell to snatch a 27-25 win and book a spot in Sunday's final.

But they shook off that disappointment to get the better of the Lions 26-14.

Co-captain Daniel Kahl said it was a good way to finish.

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"There's some really good young fellas that have been part of the squad so it's good that they've finished the weekend on a positive note," he said.

"Hopefully they're keen to go around next year and we can start to build the program back up again."

He said there is "a lot of potential" there.

"We just probably need to try and get it all together and organised a bit more and try and get a few more key players involved," he said.

Sunday was a similar story to Saturday with the Kookaburras having the better of the momentum early and establishing a good lead, only to let the Lions back into the game.

On Saturday from 19-5 at one stage in the first half they led by just four at half-time. Against the Lions they went into the break five up after leading 12-nil midway through the first half.

"But what was pleasing today is that we didn't stray away from what was working, we came back to that pretty quickly," Kahl said.

They were also "probably a bit better at picking when to keep it tight and play it through the middle".

"We had some really good impact off the bench," he added.

"Sam Agar was huge getting around and doing a lot of breakdown work. Lachy Mack and Mitch Mack had some really good carries, Richie Hunt as well."

They are some of the names that the zone hopes to be seeing in the red and white for many years to come.

Pat Keen was also great for them over the weekend.

Heavily involved in the play early, he fittingly opened the scoring for the Kookaburras on Sunday after some nice build-up.

Some quick hands then unleashed Sam Collett and he burst through and brushed off several defenders to make it 12-nil.

But the Lions hit back a couple of minutes later, winger Tom Condon burning the defence outwide.

Richie Hunt burrowed his way over from a penalty quick tap to push the Kookaburras back out to a 12-point advantage early in the second half. Andrew Moodie then muscled his way over to make it 26-7 with 23 to play.

It was the Lions though who had the final say of the game with fullback Brent Pedlow bamboozling the Kookaburras defence from about 40m out.

Central West repeated their Caldwell/Thomson Cup double from two years ago with the women's side featuring Tamworth's Jacinta Cooper too good for Hunter.

The men then held on beat Far North Coast.

Mid North Coast meanwhile thumped Western Plains in the Richardson Shield decider while former Tamworth Magpie Hamish Heeney enjoyed success with Hunter in the colts.

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