RUGBY LEAGUE: The Grafton Ghosts showed resolute defence and creative attacking flair in their win against the Coffs Harbour Comets, piling on 46 unanswered points in their major semi-final win at Frank McGuren Field. <\/p>\n
The win sees the Ghosts earn the right to host the Group 2 grand final in a fortnight's time, against the winners of this week's match between the Comets and South Grafton Rebels. <\/p>\n
The Ghosts enjoyed a dream start to the major semi-final, with fullback Mitch Lollback busting through the line to score the first points for the home side after a couple of minutes. <\/p>\n
Winger Mitch Gorman showed a clean set of heels soon after when he was put away down the touchline to score the Ghosts second try of the afternoon, which was converted by Todd Cameron to take the Ghosts out to a 12-0 lead. <\/p>\n
The next try came halfway through the first half with captain-coach Danny Wicks brushing aside would-be defenders before sprinting through a gap close to the line to score. <\/p>\n
Solid defence from brothers Brett and Danny Wicks as well as hooker Todd Cameron was complimented with strong cover defence out wide on both sides of the field to prevent the Comets from scoring. <\/p>\n
Gorman was denied his second try of the day when he was held up in goal in the corner, but the Ghosts forced a drop-out after Comets centre failed to make it out of the in-goal after fumbling to defuse a chip-kick. <\/p>\n
Dylan Collett made the most of the field position, taking advantage of an overlap out wide to score, and after the succesful conversion the lead had blown out to 24-0. <\/p>\n
A 40-20 from Ghosts put the pressure right back on the Comets with three minutes remaining in the half, but with Comets managing to steal possession after Collete played the ball, Coffs Harbour were able to go into the half-time break down 24-0. <\/p>\n
Coffs Harbour suffered major injury concerns with halfback Nathan Curry, lock Chad Isles and interchan Josh Boyd all receiving treatment in the first half. <\/p>\n
The Comets were on the back foot from the start of the second half after shelling the kick off to put the Ghosts into perfect attacking position. Collett went close to scoring his second of the day but failed to regather his own kick close to the line. <\/p>\n
The Comets weren't able to build any attacking pressure, losing the ball in the next set to gift the Ghosts another crack at their line, which Gorman took with both hands, when he got his hands on a deft grubber kick close to the line to plant the ball down and extend the Ghosts lead further. The conversion was succesful from Cameron to take the lead to 24-0. <\/p>\n
The try was quickly followed by another four pointer to Collett, and with Cameron adding the extras the score went out to 30-0. <\/p>\n
Danny Wicks scored his second try of the day when he leaped high to claim the ball following a towering kick to score next to the posts. With the kick succesful from Cameron the lead was extended to 36-0. <\/p>\n
The next try went to Blake Winmill, who showed some elusiveness from dummy-half to find the line, and after converting his own try the score went to 42-0 with elven minutes remaining. <\/p>\n
Carlton Elliott scored the eighth try of the afternoon after backing up on the inside from a Matt Muller linebreak to wrap up the match. <\/p>\n
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DOMINATE: Ghosts pile on the points against Comets - Clarence Valley Daily Examiner<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RUGBY LEAGUE: The Grafton Ghosts showed resolute defence and creative attacking flair in their win against the Coffs Harbour Comets, piling on 46 unanswered points in their major semi-final win at Frank McGuren Field. The win sees the Ghosts earn the right to host the Group 2 grand final in a fortnight's time, against the winners of this week's match between the Comets and South Grafton Rebels. The Ghosts enjoyed a dream start to the major semi-final, with fullback Mitch Lollback busting through the line to score the first points for the home side after a couple of minutes Continue reading