ASHFORD Roosters’ president Mick Lewis said while he was pleased with the team’s round 10 and round 11 wins against Inverell Hawks and Guyra Spuds respectively, he thought the Roosters will have some hard games to play in the run-in to the semi-finals.
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“Those two were very hard-fought contests, and don’t let the scores mislead you, they were very close contests that could have gone either way,” Lewis said.
“In the case of the Inverell match the conditions were atrocious, and I think both sides struggled to score points on the day.
“But our blokes probably showed a bit more determination when it counted and got home because of it.”
He said the game against Guyra was more open and more points were scored.
“It was still a very even contest and the way the competition is at the moment it’s a case of the team that takes their chances, they’re the one that is going to win,” Lewis said.
“I still think there are six sides that could win the competition this year and there is very little between any of them.”
The Roosters will take the bye this weekend and play the Tingha Tigers at Tingha in round 13 on the weekend of July 9-10. Lewis said he was expecting round 14 on the weekend of July 16-17, when the Roosters play hosts to the Hawks, to be a big match.
“It’s our Old Boys Day so we’re expecting a big crowd, and it’s the first time we’ve hosted Inverell out here this season, so we’re looking forward to that,” he said.
About $300,000 is about be spent on upgrades to the Ashford grounds, and while Lewis welcomed the expenditure he said the upgrade would probably not be completed before the end of this season.
“The NRL gave us $75,000 towards the project, so they see that there’s a future here for us,” he said.
“We’ll always struggle for numbers because we’re a small town, but the boys are going very well at the moment and we’re very proud of what they’ve achieved.”