Twice the Bulls turned down easy penalty goal attempts and went for the try instead and both times it paid off.

Harrison Friswell scored on both occasions and in the end it proved to be the difference as Tumut claimed a 29-25 win over Albury to end the Steamers roll.

It was a ploy the Bulls adopted in preparation for the elimination final and coach Morgan Grivas was thrilled the plan worked out.

“We knew that we wanted to back what we do well, which is attacking footy and running with the ball, and it paid off for us,” Grivas said.

“We didn’t want to be going into extra time with a reserves bench that had played a full game already and wanted to make sure we were playing for in front.”

Albury fired out of the blocks and went out to an early 10-0 lead after Blake Le Cornu scored off a Bulls error.

Tumut hit back when Will McLennan-Dye scored out wide but the Steamers took a 17-7 responded with an intercept try from Sam Allen.

However it didn’t halt the momentum the Bulls were building and two quick tries saw them get right back into the contest.

Joe Scott exposed Albury’s right edge for their second time before Mitch Ivill slipped down the other sideline to score two minutes later.

Le Cornu slotted his second penalty goal for a 20-17 lead at the break but the Bulls declined to do that same thing early in the second half.

Instead Friswell used his footwork to score off the resulting scrum.

Albury edged back in front when James Devlin made the most of some sloppy Tumut defence in the middle of the field.

Both teams then went down a man with Scott and Allen yellow carded and it was Tumut who took advantage.

After another bold call to refuse the three points on the offer to level things up the Bulls made an error.

However they turned the resulting scrum and Friswell carried three players over the line to score what was the match winner.

Albury had a number of opportunities late to steal it but were forced into errors as their return to finals ended at the first hurdle.

Already without Vaughn Scott due to a broken thumb from last week, Tumut had Jack Hassett go down in the warm up and Grivas was pleased with how they recovered to set up a clash with Leeton.

“It took them a couple of minutes to get involved but once we got our hands on the footy and started attacking the got their confidence out of that,” he said.

Tumut are desperate to play a home final but need to down the Phantoms once again to do so.