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THE Goulburn Dirty Reds again found a way to nullify their opponents while bypassing peak form on Saturday.
The visitors at times struggled for cohesion and often let themselves down in set pieces, yet found enough skill and composure to outmuscle a star-studded Royal Military College unit in the capital.
The taxing 18-14 win keeps the Dirty Reds’ unbeaten start to season in tact and bucks their 2011 trend of butchering tight encounters. Under the tutorage of new coach Dave Anable and given the vacancy of some of the Monaro Cup’s once premier teams, the Goulburnians have established themselves as early season favourites in a competition that promises to go down to the wire.
Each of the division one outfits has registered victories in the opening three rounds and all have shown they possess the required mettle to push for a grand final berth this September. But only the Reds remain unconquered heading into round four. It’s a position their skipper Boyd Newby intends to keep in check for the remainder of the season.
“There’ve been patches where everything’s coming together,” Newby said. “Hopefully as the season goes on, those patches of form will become longer and longer.”
There was enough fodder from Saturday’s encounter to leave Newby and Anable satisfied men. The Dirty Reds’ back-row, namely Jordan Wilcox, Toby White and Ben Green again played pivotal roles.
The boot of Mik Webber, who landed penalties and a conversion, separated the teams when the referee blew time on the bruising match-up. Although the skipper couldn’t fault any of his charges, he conceded the Reds need to play for 80 minutes and close out matches when they maintain the upper-hand.
“There’s no doubt at the moment we’re winning the hard way. Don’t get me wrong, a win’s a win, but at half-time we were well up and we probably allowed them back into the game,” he said.
That said, Newby praised his team’s tenacity and its ability to dig itself out of a hole to record another gritty victory. Goulburn faces another tricky task this Saturday when it tackles ADFA in Canberra. Discipline is the key word at Reds’ HQ.
The Academy line-up includes an able goal-kicker who’ll slot penalties from all-parts. “It doesn’t matter who your opponent is, discipline is always important. They’ve got the potential to hurt us from anywhere, both through their kicker and their counter attack ability,” Newby said.
Discipline was an area that lagged in the Reds’ game on Saturday. Again the Goulburnians infringed too often in the ruck, while inside centre and goal-kicker Webber spent 10 minutes in the bin for a verbal dissent. Meanwhile the Reds second grade team, the Goulburn Dirty Twos, came crashing back to earth after a handsome round two victory over Yass the week prior.
The Twos felt the wrath of a well-oiled RMC line-up in a 50-19 defeat on Saturday. Dave Ellison’s men aim to bounce back immediately against another defence force filled led squad in ADFA.
The Taralga Tigers and Crookwell Dogs, meantime, remain wedged in a second division ladder that resembles a gridlock.
The Tigers suffered their first loss of 2012 on Saturday, succumbing to Jindabyne 43- 12 in the Snowy Mountains. The Dogs, however, notched their second victory running, accounting for Bungendore 25-10 on home turf last weekend.
\Taralga prepares to this weekend trek to Bungendore while the Dogs fine tune preparations for a difficult assignment with the Boorowa All Golds on enemy territory.