NORTH Tamworth is slowly but surely positioning itself for another shot at the Group 4 premiership after it avenged its earlier loss to Gunnedah in convincing fashion at Jack Woolaston Oval yesterday.
The Bears are chasing West Lions at the top of the ladder and while they have admitted catching the league leaders is going to be near impossible the premiers are preparing to strike when the finals come along.
The 60-28 scoreline was overwhelming yesterday but North coach Matt Parsons wasn’t totally as convinced.
“It was a bit better,” he said with an emphasis on “bit”.
“It’s a little stepping stone.
“But giving away 28 points is not something to be too proud of.
“In saying that, we got better in a few areas.
“We certainly didn’t go backwards this week but we didn’t take the steps forward I thought we might take.
“We’ve still got a month to go so four weeks to work on everything.”
Gunnedah started well and led 10-nil after Michael Lingwood and Shane Wadwell scored.
But Chris Hunt poached a gift try to get the Bears on the board and that was enough to spark a mini-avalanche of points before halftime.
Luke Taylor scored two in quick succession on his way to a hat-trick, Scott Spencer added another and Aaron Mitchell made it 30-10 at the break.
The points kept coming after the break but it wasn’t all one-way traffic.
Two Gunnedah players, Jimmy Jackson and Lonnie Hatch were both sin-binned one after another for swearing and that seemed to be the tonic the Bulldogs needed because despite being two men down skipper Damien Connor and then Kyle Gallen crossed to haul the gap back to 14 points.
But it was a short-lived
fightback.
Hunt bagged his second and Dogs prop Luke Barton was sent off for dissent before man of the match Shaun Ferguson scored a deserved try amid a final flurry of points.
The Bears are well ahead of third placed Wee Waa and are sure to be in the major semi final against West, but Parsons wants a lot of improvement before then.
“We’ve got a long way to go from where we are to where we have to be at the end,” he said.
“But we’ve got some pretty good players in this team and I expect that we’ll get there eventually.”
West hammered Narrabri 82-12 yesterday to stay two points clear but the biggest result in the semi-final race yesterday was Coonabarabran’s 44-30 upset of Moree.