Despite the win, coach Luke Branighan wasn’t happy with his troops’ performance given that they face CYMS and Panthers, the competition heavyweights, in their last two games before the semis. Branighan was concerned that there wasn’t nearly enough support play for every break that the Tigers made, and there were plenty! According to Branighan, those try-scoring opportunities need to be converted into points in order for the Tigers to be a premiership threat.

The Tigers rested workaholic Mike Ingwersen and strike centre Jackson Brien, who had both taken a battering in recent games. 

Oberon made a good start to the game, opening up Blayney on a number of occasions. Eventually, at the eighth minute mark, Blake Miller slipped a sublime pass onto Trent Rose, who danced through the opposition before finding Matt Wakefield in support to plant the ball next to the posts. Anton Wereta converted for Oberon to take an early 6-0 lead.

Midway through the second half, the Tigers really opened up the throttle and cut Blayney to pieces with the likes of Blake Fitzpatrick, Cody Godden, Matt Wakefield and Tui Oloapu making long-ranging runs through the Blayney defence.

The frustration for Branighan, though, was that time after time the Tigers fell just short of the tryline.

With Blayney barely hanging on, Abel Lefaoseu made a 30-metre charge to once again put Oberon on the attack with 10 minutes remaining in the half. From the ensuing rucks, Blake Fitzpatrick was able to slip an inside ball to Lefaoseu close to the line for the powerhouse centre to crash over out wide. Wereta again converted for Oberon to take a 12-0 lead.

With two minutes left, Blayney scored to reduce the Tigers’ half-time lead to 12-4.

Blayney were frustrating the Tigers by stifling their natural game, slowing the ruck play down to keep themselves in the contest. Oberon, in turn, were only completing just over 60pc of their sets in the first half, so Branighan was looking for an improved second half.

Not long after play resumed, Blake Miller pounced on an intercept and raced the length of the field to outpace the Blayney chasers and extend Oberon’s lead to 18-4.

With the Tigers once again continually breaching the Bears’ defensive line, Trent Rose scooted up the short-side and offloaded to Fitzpatrick, who was pulled down a metre short of the tryline. With Blayney on the back-foot, Lefaoseu bulldozed his way over for his double, taking the score out to 22-4.

The Tigers went straight back on the attack and quickly moved into striking range of the Blayney line. Oloapu, using his strength and footwork, scored a converted try and the Tigers led 28-4. 

The next passage of play treated the crowd to another long-range Oloapu break, allowing Luke Carpenter to duck out from dummy half and plant the ball down, but this time Carpenter’s try was disallowed, much to the bewilderment of the crowd.

With the penalty count mounting against Oberon, Blayney surged back into the contest to bridge the gap to 28-14. The Tigers’ intensity seemed to drop off towards the back end of the half due the glut of possession Blayney enjoyed on the back of a 12-6 penalty count.

Captain Dave Sellers and Lefaoseu steadied the ship, eating up metres to put the Tigers back on the attack with three minutes remaining. Close to the Bears’ line, Fitzpatrick again put Rose through a narrow gap to seal the win for Oberon 32-14.

Best and fairest went to Luke Carpenter and the players’ player award went to Matt Wakefield.

The Tigers host CYMS on Saturday. It’s our annual charity round, with all proceeds going to the Oberon branch of Can Assist. Games start at 10.30am.