It shouldn't really have been surprising.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The history of clashes between Narrabri and Moree is littered with dramatic finishes.
Linton Grumely was on Saturday the hero of the latest chapter, as the Blue Boars snatched the win from the Bulls with a bellringer.
In front of a big crowd for 'Old Boars Day', among them the 2002 side that pipped the Bulls 17-16 to end their four-year premiership reign, Grumley's after the siren try and subsequent conversion from Toby Knight saw the Blue Boars escape with what coach Jake Packer labelled a "lucky" 36-all draw.
Grumley wasn't a certainty to play until the morning of the game. He'd been sick all week.
But it didn't show in his performance with the No.8 "amazing" for them, Packer said.
"Just really good runs when we needed, and he made a couple of really good steals on our line when we needed them," he said.
It was a continuation of what he has been doing pretty much all season.
"He's been amazing all year, had a breakout year," Packer said.
"He just seems to come up with runs or gets over the breakdown to come up with that pilfer when we need it."
He acknowledged that they didn't deserve to win or even get the draw, with the Bulls the better side, but said they'll take it as a win.
For all his disappointment in their performance though - their defence particularly with their one-on-one defence "quite sloppy", he was "very proud" of the way they fought back to get the draw.
Not that he ever doubted in their ability to.
"Something I've said all year is our team is an 80 minute team," Packer said.
"I knew if we could get the ball back in our half we could get a try."
Pretty much every time they had the ball in their half they had scored, but they were, he reckoned, probably only in their half for 15 minutes of the game.
He praised the composure, and smarts, they showed in those final minutes. They knew what their best way of scoring was and were prepared to just pick and drive, and pick and drive and wait for the moment.
The second time this season the Bulls have surrendered a good lead against the Blue Boars, coach Jack Travers it was "pretty disappointing" not to come away with the win, the fact that it was their arch-rivals making it hurt that little bit more.
"The boys were very upset afterwards," he said.
He couldn't fault their effort, it was again just that little bit of inexperience in managing the game when it gets close that hurt them, particularly in the second half.
"I thought we played pretty well in the first half and had a pretty good lead at half-time," he said.
"We started to slip in the second half and weren't playing the way we wanted to. We moved away from our game plan a little bit, unintentionally."
He said they just "got a little bit panicked" and didn't when they probably needed to "go back to basics".
It wasn't doom and gloom. They did still pick up three points - two for the draw and one for scoring four tries - and again showed they can compete with the top sides.
"I think the potential in the group is huge. We've just got to iron out a few of these things we're putting down to a bit of inexperience," Travers said.
Half-back Nick Smith was adjudged their best ahead of prop Cam Ledingham and outside centre Mitch Copeman. Prop Will Ciesiolka meanwhile picked up the two points for the Blue Boars and Jack Maunder the one.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
