Bathurst Panthers win at home in Group 10 thriller against Oberon Tigers

Panthers survived a nervous conclusion to the match, where they were down a man for the final eight minutes, to still come home 20-18 winners.

The game will go down as one of the most physical and entertaining encounters of the 2018 season, delivering massive hit after hit and leaving plenty of tired bodies out in the middle of the park when 80 minutes were up.

Victory has gone a long way towards aiding the Panthers’ top three hopes with two rounds to go, while the chance for Tigers to attain the same result may have gone out the window.

“The physicality out there was ridiculous. No-one was staying down. Every time there was a big shot the next bloke would just run it harder,” Panthers captain-coach Doug Hewitt.

“We needed this. It showed that we’re ready for finals footy after that performance and we’re looking forward to it.”

Tigers were practically gifted the opening points of the match when Blake Hewitt’s pass off the ground failed to find a teammate and Ben McAlpine jumped on the ball to score.

Panthers didn’t have to wait long to find their reply when a Jack Siejka try reduced the Tigers’ lead to 6-4.

Tigers camped themselves inside the Panthers half between the 15^th and 20^th minutes but somehow didn’t find a way across.

Just when Panthers thought they had survived the onslaught the Tigers broke through when Ben McAlpine’s kick found Tui Oloapu who in turn discovered Lachie Gilmore in support.

Gilmour’s unconverted try was quickly followed up but another Tigers four-pointer as Matt Ballinger arrived at the right time to capitalise on an error from the hosts.

Panthers’ Blake Seager marked his 50^th Panthers premier league with a try six minutes before the break.

Tigers’ 14-8 lead lasted only a minute into the new half.

Blake Lawson’s try and difficult sideline conversion from Willie Wright levelled proceedings up.

Six minutes later Wright produced a one-on-one strip to put himself into space inside the Oberon half.

Wright was able to sprint 50 metres to the left corner and nail another tough conversion for a 20-14 lead.

Oloapu hit back off a goal line drop out to bring Tigers within two points with a kick to come.

McAlpine’s kicking game had been sensational all match but his conversion went left of the mark to leave Panthers ahead.

Lawson was sin binned for comments made to the referee and it made for a tense finale.

Tigers turned down the opportunity to kick a penalty goal with two minutes to go and backed themselves to score with the man advantage.

However, Abel Lefaoseu was dragged into touch by the scrambling Panthers defence just a matter of inches shy of the try line.

“I’m very comfortable after that performance knowing that we’ve got three or four players still to come back into the side,” injured Tigers player-coach Luke Branighan said.

“I’m disappointed that we got beaten but knowing how much improvement there will be come semi-final time puts us in a good spot.

“We’re probably not going to run third now but we’ll go into next week’s game going for the win and reevaluate from there.”