Battle of old warriors may settle which side bags title

Victory in the Premier Reserves final between Mid Northern and Kamo tomorrow could come down to how the battle between the  "old-timers" pans out.
Mid Northern coach Rick Caufield said while   a couple of "young fellas" in the side were learning the ropes, the squad would be pushed around the park by some of the older guys.
He said that while the experience of Mid Northern players such as JT Thomas and Milton and Jared Going would be matched in the Kamo side by the likes of Tony Monaghan and Bertus van Bureen, the Mid Northern team had the advantage in that they hadn't played extra time in their semifinal win.
The squad were pleased last week to heard  Kamo had beaten the form team of the round robin competition, the Western Sharks, to reach the premier reserve final.
"We're quietly happy that the Sharks lost in the semifinals and the fact that Kamo played  100 minutes of rugby was quite a bonus for us, too. We think that extra time will take a bit out of them - anybody that's played 100 minutes of rugby knows it takes more than a week to recover from it," he said.
The two teams met in the last round at Kamo, with the visitors easily winning 50-20. But Caufield said the Kamo side  that day and the side that beat the Western Sharks were  different.
Kamo coach Phil Bailey said the result in that match was never going to alter their season much and it meant little in the broader context of the season.
"We were winning that game at halftime and then we gave four or five of our players away to the senior team and we knew we would have to go to Dargaville anyway," he said.
Van Bureen has played for the team since regular first five-eighths Dean Wallace was forced to stand down from the side to recover from a kidney complaint.
"It's great to have guys like that hanging around the club who will fill in when we you are short," Bailey said.
 The team may have been exhausted after the match but they were fit enough to fire at the end of the Sharks match and cause the upset, he said.
 The final would be a testing game but they would always react well to a challenge.
"They've got a couple of old fellows out there like Jared Going and JT Thomas, so it'll be a bit of a contest within the contest, with some ex-Northland representatives out there pulling the strings, so it all adds to the game," Bailey said.
The  final starts at 1.30pm at Toll Stadium. Marius Botha is the referee.
Mid Northern: 1 Glen Williams, 2 Tim Williamson, 3 Ben Howel, 4 Wayne Sampson, 5 Steve Purvis, 6 Mark McCluggage, 7 Rhys Williams, 8 Milton Going, 9 Scott Wilson, 10 Jared Going, 11 Charles Leuluai, 12 Dylan Jones, 13 JT Thomas, 14 Brad Roberts, 15 Brent Morgan; Reserves: Corey Thorn, Ash Horsford, Chunky Horsford, Matt Davis, Fred Morgan, Adam Crump, Chris Mellor-Reynolds.
Kamo: 1 Nik de Ridder, 2 Cody Chapman, 3 Joe Rueben, 4 Cole Thornton, 5 Sam Herman, 6 Luke Boylan, 7 Keegan Dassler, 8 Craig Burrows (c), 9 Tom Fleetwood, 10 Bertus Van Burren, 11 Aaron MacPherson, 12 Tony Monaghan, 13 Brodie Marron, 14 Daniel Mason, 15 Adam Shepherd. Reserves: Martin Van Loggerenbergm, Toby Groombridge, Lance Walters, Bevan Bradburn, Blair Gibson, Logan Matheson/Karl Briss, Adam Groves.