The women's 7s are the last Gunnedah side standing in the premiership hunt after second grade were defeated by Moree 22-14 in a hard-fought preliminary final at Narrabri on Saturday.
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The Red Devils were in the fight all game, the Bulls only pushing out to the final eight-point margin inside the final 15 minutes after prop Matt Hannay had peeled off the back of a lineout drive and crashed over to get the Red Devils within five with 15 minutes to play.
It came much to the Red Devils relief having been camped on the Bulls line for the better part of the preceding 10 minutes and twice ruled to have been held up over the line.
As a result of a string of infringements in the lead-up to Hannay's try the Bulls were down a man for a period after, but the Red Devils weren't able to really take advantage.
Co-coach Tom Torrance conceded that let them down a little bit. They also weren't able to utilise the wind behind them and earn the territory they would have liked in the second half.
He attributed that in part to players being out of position as a result of a couple of injuries.
They had headed into the game knowing they would have to play a lot better than they did in their minor semi-final, and in a lot of respects they did.
"I think our first half was a massive improvement, we really stuck it to them and we battled to get to within five points at half-time, which I thought was good running into the wind," Torrance said.
"And then in the second half we kind of ran out of a little bit of puff."
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The injuries didn't help, the Red Devils losing half-back Sandy Frend and five-eighth Josh Carter which forced a big reshuffle in the backline.
"[But] That's footy, you've got to adapt to what's in front of you and they did that just a little bit better than we did today," he said.
Carter's injury was a bit of a "double-edged sword". Carrying an injury into the game, he inflamed it weaving his way to the line on half-time.
Pulling them back into the game, it came from nothing really.
Attacking from deep within their half the ball found it's away to winger Paula Dinauvoli, who bumped off his Bulls counterpart like he was flicking a fly and burst down the sideline.
Bulls fullback Jayden Walker pulled off a great try-saving tackle to deny him but the Red Devils were able to keep the play alive.
The closest they've come to the silverware for a while, Torrance, while disappointed to fall a game short of the decider said it has been a good season.
"Like I said to the guys - I pulled them in after the game - it's a pretty positive year for the club compared to where we've come from and I hope the guys stick around and use this as a building block," he said.
"Hopefully first grade can keep some players and as these young guys (they had a few under-19s get their first taste of senior footy) get a bit older and get a bit more mature they'll be able to be pushing for spots in first grade and make the club a really strong club."
