While Blackheath’s Brett and Matt Ranse won’t ever play a game of footy together again, the father-son combination went out in the best way possible on Saturday as the Blackcats capped off an undefeated New Era Midwest Cup season with a 50-20 win over the CSU Mungoes at Don Bradman Oval.
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It was a grand final that was heavily influenced by officiating and the double sin-binning of CSU’s Oscar Thorburn and Brad Rushby just two minutes out from half time ended up being the most critical turning point in the match.
From that moment on, the Cats piled on three tries in ten minutes, stretching their 18-14 lead out to 34-14.
Despite winning the match by 30 points, Blackheath’s Matt Ranse admitted his boys were ‘rattled’ in the early stages after a Billy Dickinson double helped the students to an early 14-12 lead.
“They scored a couple of quick tries and the boys heads were down,” he said.
“Thanks to CSU for putting on a good, hard game.”
It was only fitting that both Ranse boys went out with meat pies as Matt Bagged a double after his old man scored the opening try of the match.
“That’s my dad’s last game and I’ll probably head off to Group 10 next year.
“iI’s good to go out with a win. It’s awesome.”
Set pieces and structure highlighted Blackheath’s season and the Cats’ flare stood out again on Saturday as the likes of five-eight Jesse Lua La and fullback Shannon Rhodes had their fingerprints all over the result.
CSU’s Oscar Thorburn, who was sent off with under five minutes to go, commended Blackheath’s performance, acknowledging they were heavy favourite to take out the title.
“Everyone was keen and we turned up but you’ve got to be fair to them… they’re class,” Thorburn said.
“I’m mates with a few of them but as a whole I can’t stand them. They were the better team, though.”
Thorburn didn’t hold back when asked to comment on the refereeing as he dubbed it ‘the worst performance since last year’s grand final’ – a match CSU lost Wallerawang.
“It’s the only massive negative to this competition,” he said.
“In my opinion, we’ve had some of the worst refereeing decisions.
“But even if we had good refs today, Blackheath still beat us. I’m not making excuses. They were the better team for sure.”
BLACKHEATH BLACKCATS 50 (Matt Ranse 2, Adam Fuller, Brett Ranse, Brad Jervis, Anthony Corocher, Matthew Walsh, Shannon Rhodes, Dylan Morton tries; Dylan Mortan 6, Brett Ranse 1 goals) CSU Mungoes 20 (Billy Dickinson 3, Curtis Schaefer tries; Brad Rushby 2 goal).
Jake Humphreys
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
