Goodooga wins Barwon Darling Rugby League Grand Final!
“One of the best games in country Rugby League history” – Ronny Gibbs
The Goodooga Magpies, after an 11-year break from the competition, beat the Bourke Warriors by one point over the weekend to claim the 2022 Barwon Darling Rugby League Grand Final at Davidson Oval, Bourke.
After the game, a tug-o-war for the full 70 minutes, the great Ronnie Gibbs described the Grand Final as one of the best in country rugby league history.
The two sides took to the field amidst the roar of a packed-out crowd, and before long, Bourke silenced the Goodooga fans after a chip and chase in the opening minutes, resulting in Shimar Dennis scoring and Bourke claiming the first points of the game.
Again, Bourke was the second to cross the chalk and brought the score out to 10 – nil; but Goodooga wasn’t fazed and showed remarkable resilience to fight back and eventually level the score.
Suddenly, the floodgates opened for the Goodooga Magpies, who ran in multiple tries before half-time and led going into the break 22 – 10.
The second half kicked off, and both teams seemed just as fresh and ferocious as they did in the first half, with multiple big hits and hard runs keeping the fans on their feet.
Suddenly, a tackle went awfully wrong for Goodooga, and a Bourke player was lifted above horizontal and landed on his head.
This got the sides fired up, and the ref quickly had to throw water on the fire before he found himself refereeing a boxing match instead of a rugby league game.
The player from Goodooga, Tristan Lamb, was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes despite the Bourke crowd crying out for a red card.
This sin-bin allowed the Bourke Warriors to get back in the game, and they did, running in two tries in quick succession to lock the scores up 22 – 22.
This was familiar territory for the two sides as the last time they played, they couldn’t be separated two weeks ago, and the final score was 22 points each.
Realising this, Robert Lane from the Goodooga Magpies landed a field goal from close range as the minutes ran out to take the score to 23 – 22.
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