West Wyalong's Jordan Oakes, pictured last year, ended Black and Whites' finals hopes with a field goal at the weekend.
WITH five minutes until half-time, West Wyalong's Jordan Oakes took aim and fired what appeared to be an innocuous field goal against the Griffith Black and Whites in their minor semi-final at Leeton last weekend.
Little did she know, that one-point would be all that stood between her side and elimination as West Wyalong won what was a thrilling contest at Leeton's No. 1 Oval.
Griffith coach Peter Parslow took the field goal as a compliment, saying his side's defence held under the withering attack by West Wyalong.
"They had the majority of the ball in the first half and they were peppering our line, but we were managing to hold them out," Parslow said.
"And they popped that field goal over and we took that as a bonus that they thought they just couldn't break our line."
Griffith was forced to make a major reshuffle of its line-up when Shailyn Williams was only able to play the opening two minutes of the game, with Parslow admitting her absence did upset the side.
"Shailyn has been playing with a torn hamstring for the past five weeks, she did it badly the week before and wasn't supposed to be playing this weekend," he said.
"She had some work done on it and it was strapped, but about a minute-and-a-half in she re-tore it and had to come off.
"The girls really hung in there and were able to make a few breaks, but West Wyalong really scrambled well at times and defended well it was an amazing game."
West Wyalong now faces Hay in the preliminary final this weekend at Narrandera after the Magpies fell to a red-hot Leeton side 22-12 last Sunday.
While admitted he was gutted by the loss, Parslow said the future of the club's leaguetag side is very bright, given the amount of experience the younger players have gained this year.
"I'd say we've only got a handful over 18 playing in the side, but the way the young girls have stepped up this year is a credit to themselves," he said.
"They've pretty much been the strong point of our side this year, so I think in the future this side is going to be very strong in the leaguetag competition."