Orange Emus, Bathurst Bulldogs win Westfund Ferguson Cup qualifying finals

Emus ground out a 28-17 victory while Bulldogs romped home in a 64-nil hammering, they progress to the preliminary finals in a fortnight while thanks to the second chance their top four finishes brought the Tuskers and Redbacks are resigned to a sudden-death road.

Although Emus' 11-point margin does sound somewhat comfortable it was anything but, it took a Nikki D'Aquino try - her 26^th of the 2019 season - in the shadows of full-time to absolutely secure the win after a 40-minute arm-wrestle.

In fact, the minor premiers actually had to come from behind twice, the fourth-finishing Tuskers led 5-nil early in the piece and enjoyed a 12-7 buffer at half-time too.

"It was definitely never a safe result until Nikki scored at the end there and Temora probably had the upper hand for quite a bit of the game," Emus coach Jeremy Reay said.

"We'd not played them this year so we weren't sure what to expect other than them being a strong side, we knew they'd be tough because they finished in the top four.

"They stuck it to us in a big way, especially at the breakdown. They came out firing and it forced us to roll up our sleeves and do some really tough work.

"It was good we were able to, being able to produce that kind of team effort where we're under pressure puts us in pretty good stead for the rest of the finals I think."

After Temora held their 12-7 lead at the break the greens hit back, re-taking the lead and extending their margin to nine through Milika Tuinakauvadra and Alex Walker's third quarter tries, both of which Em McDonald converted.

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Temora hit back with an unconverted try to get within one score and then, in the opening stages of the fourth quarter, mounted a handful of attacking raids at the greens.

The minor premiers held though and D'Aquino capped the victory with her last-minute five-pointer, which McDonald converted to keep her 100 per cent record for the day intact.

Although West Wyalong fought valiantly, as the scoreline suggests Bulldogs' victory came in a much more dominant fashion.

Jakiya Whitfield fired for the Bathurst side, who are attempting to defend last year's title win, and crossed for five of Bulldogs' 10 tries while Nicole Schneider and Courtney Auld also grabbed doubles.

WATCH: Bulldogs' Courtney Auld crosses for the first of her two tries on Saturday...

Schneider's brace came in the opening quarter, both against the run of play as the Redbacks enjoyed the bulk of possession and territory in the first five minutes or so.

But after she crossed for her second, the floodgates opened, with Kate Gullifer scoring Bulldogs' 10^th and final try on the full-time hooter.

Based on the emphatic nature of their performance Reay naturally labelled Bulldogs his side's biggest threat in the weeks ahead, although he didn't rule out any of the remaining sides.

CSU Bathurst and Narromine also remain in contention after ending Mudgee and Forbes' seasons, respectively, in the elimination finals.

"You have to say Bathurst, they just thrashed West Wyalong who finished second and when they're on, they're really on," he said.

"But Temora, from what we just had to withstand I could see them going deep into the competition. Narromine looked good for a first-year team too and CSU were in the grand final last year.

"Any of the six sides left could win it, for sure, it'll be a pretty exciting series I think."