A send off and three sin bins made for a wild afternoon of football at Wade Park as a 12-man Bathurst Panthers ran over the top of a disappointing Orange Hawks side 34-16.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The visitors played for close to an hour with a player down after centre Jackson Vallis was given his marching orders following a brawl resulting from a swinging arm on Hawks fullback Ryan Manning.
Manning, who took exception to the hit, was given 10 in the bin as was Ethan Young, handing Panthers a temporary advantage.
It was Hawks who scored twice however to go into the sheds ahead 10-4 and after Panthers forward McCoy White was sin-binned for a shoulder charge on Hawks winger Brodie Tarleton, it looked like a win would finally be heading the Two Blues' way.
However a stunning 30-point half from Panthers not only consigned Hawks to a seventh straight defeat but reaffirmed the visitors as a contender in the Peter McDonald Premiership.
Hawks coach Shane Rodney said his side "threw it away" with horrible ball security.
"They got all their points down a man which was disappointing," he said.
"Our boys, I think they threw it away. 14 errors, 50 per cent completion, any team will beat you with that.
"They didn't carry on with it. To Panthers credit, when they were down a man they controlled things.
"They controlled the possession, their kicking game was good.
"It was our attention to detail with the footy again, which every week so far has not been up to standard for this competition."
Panthers coach Jake Betts, who scored his side's final try, said he demanded a reaction after a poor performance against Nyngan Tigers.
"I asked for a bit of a reaction after last week," he said.
"We were very poor last week and our areas were very ordinary.
"The boys were by no means perfect, but the effort was there and that's all all you can ask for.
"I just said we just have to keep it simple and just keep working for each other.
"We've worked hard for each other and the last couple of weeks we've probably gone away, but I think we're starting to get that back."
Panthers on the prowl
Betts held his team talk at half-time on the field and got an immediate reaction with Brady Cheshire squaring the ledger in the 46th minute.
White returned to the fray soon after and Panthers went bang-bang, Josh Merritt nailing a 40/20 and scoring to have the visitors up 16-10.
Hawks hit back with Rakai Tuheke selling the candy close to the line and going over untouched but it was as good as it got for the home side, Panthers scoring three unanswered tries in 10 minutes to put the result beyond doubt.
Bathurst Panthers 34 (Tom Lemmich 2, Dylan Miles, Josh Merritt, Brady Cheshire, Jake Betts tries; Miles 5 goals) defeated Orange Hawks 16 (Lachlan Lawson, Harry Wald, Rakai Tuheke tries; Wald, Ryan Manning goals)
