Gundagai took another big step towards playing finals, but picked up another key injury concern in the process.
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Captain-coach James Smart only lasted for 30 minutes in their clash with Junee after picking up a knee injury.
Smart has missed large chunks of the season with hamstring problems as well as a broken hand and the latest injury is not what the already injury-ravaged Tigers needed a month out from finals.
With the split round bye ahead, Smart is hoping he won’t miss too much more football.
“It will be alright,” Smart said.
“It didn’t feel 100 per cent so I thought I couldn’t really contribute as well as I would have liked so thought it would be best for someone else to do the job.”
Gundagai jumped a win clear of their top four rivals with the 40-10 win over Junee at Anzac Park on Sunday.
They are now two points ahead of the Diesels and Cootamundra, who have a game in hand, with three more games to come.
Smart thought it was another important win for the club’s finals hopes.
“We knew we needed this one to put a gap between us and them,” he said.
“To score a 30-point victory could come in handy with the for and against at the end of the season.”
However the scoreline doesn’t really reflect how large portions of the game played out.
After a blistering start, where they scored three tries in the opening 10 minutes, the Tigers went into their shells for the next 40 minutes.
The Diesels were able to get into the grind and went into the break down 18-4 after Aidan Sweeney scored out wide following a fortuitous call in the lead up.
Both teams were denied tries due to forward pass calls and it was only with 16 minutes to go that Gundagai finally added to their lead.
Blake Dunn charged over to put the game out of reach and keep his side firmly entrenched in th.
The Tigers scored four tries in 11 minutes to really blow out the scoreline as James Luff, Rhys Smart and Noa Fotu all crossed.
Simione Naiduki got a consolation try for the Diesels, but it was too little too late.
After being thrilled with their efforts against Brothers last Smart admitted it wasn’t their most clinical performance.
“It was not our smartest performance, there was a lot of drop ball coming out of our own end, which was disappointing,” he said.
“You look at the scoreboard and the scoreboard looks great, but it felt like we certainly could have scored a few more points.
“We have had a lot of changes in our team again this week and to the boys credit at half-time the energy was a bit down but to come out and score some good tries was nice.”
Gundagai faces old rivals Tumut after the week off before tackling lowly Temora and Albury in the last two rounds.
