Persistence has paid off for the Cowra Magpies First Division, the side recording an upset win over Bathurst Panthers in freezing conditions at Carrington Park in Bathurst on Sunday.
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"Bloody oath," coach Josh Newling said when asked if he was happy with his side's 28-22 win.
"It was an awesome feeling.
"We all just turned up yesterday, it was good, an unreal feeling.
"The energy from the side was really good."
Under normal circumstances The First Division win would have given Cowra the Chad Nealon Shield with the Magpies League Tag and Under 18s also successful on the day.
League Tag defeated Panthers 8-6 after a last minute fifth tackle play by captain coach Stacey Ashe sent Taliah Ridgeway Williams over to take the game from Panthers.
In the Under 18s Cowra ran out 22-10 winners.
"It was a different feeling in the sheds before the game, we weren't saying much, the warm up was unreal and we took that out on to the field," Newling said after his maiden victory as a coach.
"It was a good team effort, everyone did their job which was good."
Newling made special mention of the performance of Tom Rose at five-eight and promising young forward Bill Statham who came off the bench after a full game in the under 18s.
Fellow under 18s Bob Jeffries and Jacob Haeata also added strength to the Cowra bench.
In the juniors the Magpies forced the hosts to play catch up football from the outset with the Magpies turning up ready to play from the outset.
Panthers gave away the opening penalty late in a Magpies set and it gave Cowra the chance to score the opening points, which they took through a converted Luke Kinsey try.
Oliver Kemp came close to finding a quick reply for the Panthers but the winger was pulled into touch less than a metre shy of the try line.
Kinsey nearly made the hosts pay for that missed opportunity in the 13th minute, reaching out for the try line and losing the ball just before he could plant it down.
The game continued to go end-to-end for some time until a 40-20 from Panthers gave them a golden opportunity to get on the board before half-time.
Fullback Keeghan Clayton found space to score the team's first points and a great conversion from Jackson Carter made it 6-all.
Cowra got the opening points of the second half when Panthers were caught napping on a Magpies bomb, allowing Mitch Amos to kick the ball further downfield and chase up his effort with a try.
Amos was in again just moments later when the Magpies found an overlap on the left wing, pushing the score out to 16-6.
A successful one-on-one strip gave Panthers the sniff of a comeback, as Kemp finished off the ensuing set with a try down the right sideline.
Magpies quickly put a stop to those ambitions when Clayton was sent to the sin bin with seven minutes to go - for slowing down the play-the-ball - and Cowra halfback Tom Negus kicked an easy penalty goal for an 18-10 advantage.
The visitors put the icing on the victory when a line break from Magpies fullback Charlie Jeffries deep in his own territory helped set up five eighth Ryan Carroll for a try in the final minute.