The Cowra Magpies finished the 2022 season with a thriller, going down 22-20 to Orange Hawks at Sid Kallas Oval on Saturday.
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In a season plagued by injuries the Magpies showed what could have been in their season ending encounter against a Hawks side vying for a finals position.
The home side finished with all the momentum getting within two points of Hawks and attacking in the final minute before a dropped ball put an end to what would have been an upset win.
Gutted after the loss Magpies coach Jack Nobes found it hard to put his thoughts about the game into words.
Making a surprise return from injury for the Magpies final game of 2022 in front of a combined Ladies Day, Indigenous Day and Old Boys Day crowd Nobes again expressed how proud he is of his young side.
"We gave them a hell of a fright," Nobes said.
"The boys dug deep and played some good footy, we just cost ourselves with the start," he said.
The Magpies trailed 18-0 after three quick tries with the Hawks halves Ben Blimka and Matt Boss wreaking havoc.
Blimka was the first to cross followed by back to back tries to Boss.
All three tries were converted by Ryan Manning and the Magpies found themselves looking down the barrel of a big score-line after just 10 minutes.
But the home side steadied, aided by the big boot of Thomas Rose who put them back in the match via a couple of towering kicks that put the Hawks back three under pressure.
When Magpies centre Zac Browne pounced on a kick that wasn't cleaned up by Hawks to score under the posts the comeback was underway.
Rose had no trouble with the conversion and the Magpies were back in the game.
They edged closer in the shadows of half-time when Joe Waters crossed in the corner to take the half time score to 18-10.
The Magpies returned for the second half and had all of the early running.
Unlucky not to score on several occasions the Magpies defence cracked after 20 minutes and Martin Pollack raced away for what was to be a match winning try for Hawks, taking the visitors out to a 22-10 lead.
But the Magpies rallied with late tries to Waters, his second of the match, before Jack Nobes combined with Jack Grant to provide the cliff hanger finish.
"You've just got to start games better than that, 18-0 after 10 minutes and we lost by two," Nobes said.
"There were a lot of positive today but again its a hard loss to take on a day like today."
On the positive side Nobes again praised the effort of Cowra's younger brigade.
Hawks coach Shane Rodney wasn't surprised by the spirit shown by Cowra.
"We spoke about if we allowed them to play at that sort of level it would be a hard afternoon.
"It was their Old Boys Day, Indigenous Day and Ladies Day so we expected they'd put up a fight.
"We knew we'd have to roll our sleeves up and their nearly got us in the end.
"We probably weren't smart enough.
"We've still got the slimmest chance of playing finals footy, we had to win today and then sit back and see if the results go our way," Rodney said.