The Maitland Pickers are within one game of claiming back-to-back Newcastle Rugby League minor premierships after beating South Newcastle 34-4 at Townson Oval on Saturday.
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The Pickers led 28-0 at half-time and despite threatening repeatedly were only able to cross for one try in the second half held out by a resolute Souths defence, despite them going a man down when Jacob Afflick was sent off for a high shot on returning Maitland fullback Dan Langbridge.
Maitland with 25 points are two points clear of Central Newcastle and have a 174-point better for and against record, but need to win at least one of their final two games against the Macquarie Scorpions and Cessnock to secure the minor premiership.
Pickers coach Matt Lantry said after an excellent first half, Maitland struggled to maintain the pressure in the second.
"We struggled to get out of second gear in the second half," Lantry said.
"I thought Souths came out and didn't want the score line to blow out too much and to their credit they defended really well and turned us away time and time again in the second half.
"It was a bit of both us being impatient and putting the cue in the rack a bit and Souths they way they come out in the second half."
There were some really pleasing signs for the Pickers with halfback Brock Lamb, five-eighth Chad O'Donnell and hooker Alex Langbridge all performing well and fullback Dan Langbridge getting through his first game in two months after ankle surgery.
"Brock Lamb played really well, his kicking game was good and he had some nice touches for try assists," Lantry said.
"Chaddy O'Donnell played with some great control as well.
"Our seven, six and nine were probably our pick, they played exceptionally well. Matty Soper-Lawler was great as well as Lincoln Smith and Sam Anderson.
"It was really just a good collective performance, we had a number of really good contributors."
There were some worries when Dan Langbridge was caught high across the jaw by Afflick, but he suffered no ill-effects.
"Dan was bringing back the ball and just put a little bit of footwork on and Jacob Afflick hung out an arm and collected him fair across the jaw line.
"It was a bit of a worry for Dan in his first game back, but he got up and soldiered on.
"It was good to see him back, there was a real nice balance in our team with Matty (Soper-Lawler) back in the centres and just having some strike and speed and with Dan chiming in.
"The other thing that Dan brings is a level of enthusiasm and talk. His talk from the back is as good as anyone in the competition and he gave us that little bit of energy."
Lantry said Soper-Lawler had been exceptional at fullback over the past two months, but his move back to centre was best for team balance.
"I'm not sure if Matty's best position if fullback or centre after seeing him play the way he did over the period Dan was out," he said.
"They are certainly two different fullbacks. Dan's a bit bubbly, has a good step and skips across the defensive line, while Matty is a bit more direct and robust as a fullback.
"They both bring different attributes to our team and having both of them in our team and getting our best 13 on the field has been very good."
Lantry said the tough road to the finals would serve the Pickers well as it had been a difficult stretch to find consistency and to gauge their form.
"I guess the whole stop-start nature of the past month has been frustrating. We played one, had the weekend off because of wet weather, played against Kurri and then had another weekend off so you never really no where you sit," he said.
"You hope you don't lose too much fitness in that time, timing and combinations and all those type of things can see a bit of clunkiness in your attack and probably we were like that for the first 10 minutes, but for the next half an hour of the first half I thought we were really, really good.
"It's nice to put that on the board, but we know it's a significant task against Macquarie on Sunday.
"I think it will be one of the games of the year.
"Macquarie along with Cessnock and Central are the form teams of the competition at the moment.
"Not trying to play and underdog tag where we are at with out footy in comparison with the footy those teams are playing we are a bit of the pace to them.
"We are certainly going to have it tough against them on Sunday. I've said from day one they are the team that has recruited heavily and built a really good squad to challenge for the title this year."
The Maitland Pickers maintained top spot in reserve grade with a 22-20 win against Souths.
The under-19s are third after a 12-6 loss to second placed Souths.
Maitland were pushed but maintained their unbeaten record in Ladies League Tag defeating University 20-16.