Kleinig caught the ball on the full and ran, followed by Sam Keel who drew a penalty for the Devils. Davis took the penalty and made about 10-20 metres until he was held up. Possession moved back and forwards with Skelly raking the ball and the Devil’s gaining the ball against the feed. Crookwell missed a few tackles and Gunghalin built momentum before Panne took the opposition out over the side line.

Great runs from Butler and Gibbs led to Panne putting the ball down over the line, but the team were unable to convert, the score 28-20.

The next Devil’s possession saw Billy Cramp make metres and get Panne into scoring position. Plumb luck saw the ball bounce over the cross bar for a successful conversion.

A brilliant run from Butler could not be maximised. Crookwell lost the ball in the next run but their prop was stopped by a massive tackle from Needham. Crookwell applied pressure and the Bull’s passed forward. With the ball back in Crookwell’s hands, Panne took the chance to score under the post, with a Plumb conversion making the score 40-20.

A physical game started to take its toll, Plumb got injured from a bad tackle. Plumb was okay after a while but the opposing player was helped off the field by league safe.

The Devil’s could not keep Gungahlin out as the clock ticked down, and the Bulls scored without a conversion, 40-24.

Charlie Dawson tackled and saved a try from being conceded, but ended up getting injured.

Crookwell’s cheer squad started a countdown with ten seconds to go.

The Devils were ecstatic, with the Under 13’s team celebrating a Grand Final place on the 17th of September at Bruce Stadium.

Good luck to the DEVILS!!!

Match report by Jayden Eddy and Jack Keel

Under 15s

On Sunday September 4, 2011, Crookwell Under 15’s travelled to Canberra to take on the Cooma Bears for the right to play in the Grand Final. The boys got off to a very poor start, a mistake by Crookwell saw the Cooma centre pick the ball up and race seventy metres to score under the post. A short time later Shea Carney received the ball from the scrum, Carney raced ninety five metres to score a fantastic solo try, making the score six all. Crookwell boys went into their shells as a result of this, the big Cooma forwards pounded and pounded the Crookwell defence, this took its toll on the boys, resulting in Cooma scoring a very soft try right on the stroke of half time making the score ten points to six.

Crookwell made a few changes and regrouped at half time. Five minutes into the second half saw big runs from all the forwards, on the fifth tackle Carney put a kick through into the in goal area, with Jack Dawson winning the race to the ball to score a great try, conversion was wide, score even at ten all. At this stage of the game Crookwell were making it hard for themselves by making mistakes handing the ball over to Cooma. With five minutes remaining Cooma scored what looked to be a match winning try, taking the score to 16 to 10, but the big hearted Crookwell boys lifted and started to play some good football. With two seconds on the clock the ball went to Lachlan Croker, Croker was smothered by four Cooma players, not sure how he got the ball away but the ball managed to find the ever present Jack Dawson who caught the ball and raced twenty metres to score right in the corner. As he put the ball down the siren sounded. Up stepped Carney, knowing he had to kick the goal to make it a draw. The kick was taken right in front of the Cooma spectators. I will leave it to your imagination as to what was said to Carney prior to the kick. Carney moved in and slotted the ball between the posts. Carney looked at the supporters and threw his hands in the air, and said “Bring on extra time”.

Extra time began, Crookwell boys lifted their defence. Cooma had no answers with what the boys threw at them. With one minute remaining the ball found Croker five metres out, Croker saw the try line, he took three players over the line with him, placed the ball down, threw the ball back to Grabben Gullen with joy, making the final score twenty points to sixteen. All boys played well in patches. It was the team’s worst performance of the year but a win is a win. The team and coaching staff would like to thank their loyal supporters (their parents) and the small number of committee members who travelled with them to show their support as they played their semi final on Sunday.

Crookwell Under 15’s now play the Grand Final at Bruce Stadium on Sunday September 18 at 11.30am. Would be great to see Crookwell get behind the Under 15’s and turn out in numbers.

Contributed.