In an emotionally charged game which started with a minute’s silence in paying tribute to Goologong player Garry Smith who died in a car accident last week, the match was unfortunately marred by an ugly incident in the second half which saw play abandoned early.

In good signs for the Brahmans, their players continued the momentum of their impressive second half of last weekend against Gooloogong and made every post a winner.

After approximately 35mm of rain in the past week, the contest was once again played in trying conditions, with all players trying hard not to slip under foot. Add to this, the sometimes blustery winds and it meant that long passes were not in the offering and good old fashioned grunt was the order of the day.

With a large supporter base and a strong attack, the visitors had every right to go into the game with a lot of belief and would’ve fancied themselves to get the job done.

Their confidence took a blow in the first five minutes of the game when star full back Andrew Swaffield crossed the stripe five minutes into the opening stanza. His try was converted by star five-eighth Craig Irwin and the local boys were up and about.

Just a short time later, Irwin decided to score a try himself and this time, super-boot Phil Sparnon made the first of his five conversions for the day, making it a six point play which had the Brahmans up 12-0 at the 13^th minute mark of the first half.

Peak Hill stemmed the tide somewhat, by crossing over for a try at the 18^th minute mark, but Brahman Henry Paton replied just five minutes later to show the opposition who was boss for the day.

In the latter stages of the first term, the Roosters kept themselves in the hunt with another four pointer which was converted, but home team hero Ben Potts scored a magnificent try to see his side up 30-10 at the break.

With the breeze at their backs, the Brahmans were expected to go on with the job in the final half, but the Roosters, not done with yet, managed unconverted tries in the 44^th and 53^rd minute marks of the match and it was clearly game on.

With the contest up for grabs, a number of Binalong players stepped up to be counted, mainly so dummy half Guy Sherrett and Dave Brown who scored in the 56^th and 59^th minute marks respectively, to begin taking the game away from their opposition.

As a result, the visitors retreated into shut down mode, playing a less attacking brand of football in the process and in effect did their best to suffocate a free flowing Binalong outfit.

Unfortunately, things got ugly when in the 63rd minute a Roosters play maker, was sent from the field for throwing multiple punches at Brahmans player Swaffield.

However five minutes later, sheer weight of numbers meant that Irwin would score his third try of the afternoon in the 68th minute of the match and the Binalong faithful had much cause for celebrating.

Simmering tensions remained after this and unfortunately referee Wayne Prosser was also under fire.

It wasn’t long, before it seems glass bottles were thrown onto the field in a shocking incident, at which point Prosser had no option but to call off the match with seven minutes remaining on the clock. 

Other players to shine for the home team, were forwards Ben Potts, Tony Worthy and Reuben Olah who provided strong runs with the latter in particular, bringing the crowd to their feet at stages throughout the afternoon, with his exhilarating runs.

 Although there were still several mistakes and penalties from the troops, the Brahmans were magnificent against quality opposition and the win gives them a massive psychological boost heading into the pointy end of the season.

Next Saturday, Binalong have an away game against the Canowindra Tigers.

Juniors:

In the earlier game, the Binalong Juniors went down 22-20, after leading 8-6 at half time with Dylan Downey, Harry Morris and Marty Smith all leading from the front.