They may have finished the regular season in second place but Dubbo Macquarie’s season is over after their second straight finals loss.
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The Raiders were outplayed by a determined Forbes Magpies outfit at Caltex Park on Saturday.
The Magpies survived a second half comeback to take a fairly comfortable 40-20 victory.
Macquarie’s task was made tough by the suspension of five-eighth Josh Merritt and they lacked some direction without him.
Raiders coach Steve McLellan said he was disappointed
“We were’nt good enough. They turned up to play and we didn’t match that enthusiasm and compounded that with errors. We are a better side than what we showed but full credit to Forbes,” he said.
“They were too good on the day and we didn’t respond.”
Forbes manager Cameron Greenhalgh said there were a lot of promising signs from the game and his side took plenty of confidence from the victory.
“Macquarie put us under the pump and we leaked a few points but we rectified that and played to our strengths today,” he said.
“We have good go-forward, we scored a few tries off kicks. I knew we had points in us most of the year and our defence has really picked up in the last few weeks.”
Forbes led 18-10 at half-time but it was their performance in the second half that showed how dangerous they can be.
They got the gap out past two converted tries when Brodie Hodges capitalised on a disjointed defensive line to score and Magpies forward exposed soft defence to extend the lead to 30-10.
Macquarie began their mini-revival with an impressive run from winger Viliane Turuva down the right touchline, holding off defenders and improving the position for the conversion. Rowan Orcher then found space down the same sideline and the gap was back to 10 with 10 to go.
A barnstorming run from inspirational forward Zac Merritt where he ran 55 metres and dispatched four defenders sealed the result, before Ethan Gaffney scored his second try of the game to make it 40-20.
Earlier in the match Macquarie opened the scoring through Kiyan Shaw before the teams traded tries. Gaffney, Herbert and Bolam scored for Forbes in the first half, while Ash Widders crossed the stripe for the home side. Macquarie also blew two good chances in the first half, both within 10 metres of the line.
FORBES MAGPIES 40 (Ethan Gaffney 2, Brodie Hodges, Marty Herbert, Hayden Bolam, Ben Maguire, Zac Merritt tries; Nick Greenhalgh 6 goals) defeated DUBBO MACQUARIE 20 (Ashley Widders, Kiyan Shaw, Viliame Turuva, Rowan Orcher tries; Mason Williams 2 goals).
