After 12 rounds of this year’s competition, Panthers ‘boasted’ a three-from-10 record and were three wins outside the top five, plus for-and-against.

Thanks to their local rivals St Pat’s, who took care of Orange CYMS yesterday, Panthers’ win was enough to get them into the finals and they bring impressive form with them, having won five of their last six.

They now turn around for a rematch with Hawks this weekend.

Hawks were without Arty Shead and in-form hooker Mitch Hurford, but matched it with the men in black early in the first half and clung to an 8-all scoreline before Panthers turned it on to score five unanswered tries in the final round rout.

Centre Blake Lawson was the star, bagging four tries and four goals in a 24-point haul for the visitors.

Panthers five-eighth Matt Rose praised the work of barnstorming centre Lawson.

“He had a great day, Laws,” he said.

“He’s hard to defend against and I think they had Tim Mortimer on him. He did a good job out there and got the four tries and kicked goals. 

“It was a hard game to play. 

“Knowing we could possibly play Hawks next week we didn’t want to bring everything out, and a few of us come off with about 20 to go just to hold back a little bit.

“Our second phase probably got them on the back foot and we managed to finish the tries off then.”

Lawson bagged an early brace thanks largely to some wonderful lead-up work from Blake Dean.

But Hawks found their feet after 15 minutes of early frustration and, when young pivot Keegan Harding grubbered for himself to re-gather and score, then Mortimer put winger Justin Howarth over, the score was 8-all.

Lawson’s third six minutes before the break was enough to hand Panthers a six-point advantage at halftime.

It turned out to be the nail in Hawks’ coffin.

Although trying in the opening exchanges of the second period, a seemingly uninterested and often disorientated Hawks never really matched it with the Panthers throughout the final 40 minutes.

Testament to that nonchalance, one of Brock McGarity’s kick-off restarts from the centre of halfway sailed out on the full by almost 15 metres.

In the end, Lawson’s fourth and relatively soft tries to Jake Betts, William Kennedy and prop Osea Sadrau put the polish on an impressive Panthers victory at Wade Park.

“You can’t play footy games like that and expect to be a shot in the finals,” Hawks captain-coach Tim Mortimer said, with his side now set to host Panthers all over again.

“We’ve got to sharpen things up quick smart or we’re going to be found out next week.”

After nine wins in a row, the two blues have now lost their last two contests.

“It’s a bit of an attitude problem at the moment,” Mortimer said.

“I’m trying to put my finger on it. It’s very disappointing.”

A forward short with the absence of Shead, Mortimer’s men simply couldn’t withstand a barrage of second-phase play from the Panthers men up front. Blake Seager, especially, was outstanding.

And it proved costly.

“It’s something you can’t allow. The deeper you get into those games the harder they are to contain. We defended a lot, but in the last 10 minutes we couldn’t wrap them up,” Mortimer added.

“There’s no one to blame but ourselves. We’ve got to fix it.

“We need to turn up next week with a different mindset or we’re going to end up out of the competition.”

BATHURST PANTHERS 36 (Blake Lawson 4, William Kennedy, Jake Betts, Osea Sadrau tries; Lawson 4 goals) defeated ORANGE HAWKS 8 (Keegan Harding, Justin Howarth).