Glebe Burwood Wolves scored three late tries in the last ten minutes of the match to record a solid 26-6 victory over the North Sydney Bears at Leichhardt Oval.
Both teams survived plenty of attacking raids from their opposition in the early exchanges.
Big Glebe centre Addison Demetriou was close to scoring offloaded it Matt Stimson who lost the ball over the line.
Minutes later, Glebe forced a drop out and had another chance to score but Bears prop Elia Faatui caught the ball on the fly off a grubber kick and got his team out of trouble.
The Bears were awarded a penalty on Glebe’s line with eight minutes left to play in the first half and half Tobias Westcott kicked the goal successfully to break the stalemate and lead 2-0.
Just a few minutes later, Glebe were down the other end and looking dangerous and their five-eighth Sitiveni Moceidreke took advantage of an overlap on the right hand side of the field and crashed over to break the try-scoring drought.
Demetriou’s conversion looked to be going over but it hit the uprights so Glebe remained just two points ahead at 4-2.
Two minutes out from the half time break the Bears had good field position and were awarded a penalty right on the Wolves line so Westcott kicked the penalty goal to tie up the game heading into the sheds.
“We just had to go out there and keep competing," Glebe skipper Jackson Garlick said.
"The repeat sets really wore them down - I think we got three in the first half and we had to keep going in the second half - it was all about game positioning and playing in their end of the field."
Moceidreke put in a grubber and Jonah Ngarono was after it but Bears forced it dead so Glebe got another chance.
Twelve minutes into the second half and off the back of a penalty Glebe decided to shoot for goal and Demetriou was successful so Glebe were in front 6-4.
Ngarono chased a kick hard and looked certain to score but in a huge defensive effort North Sydney winger Michael Pearsall held him up as he was going over the line to deny the try.
In the ensuing set Glebe were awarded another penalty and tried to go for the four points but Pearsall again came up with another try saver off a kick that was rolling along the ground.
It was Bears dropout and once again their defence stood up as big man Dwayne Mariner went over the sticks but was held up by four defenders.
Up the other end of the field the Bears were awarded a penalty and Westcott kicked it to tie up the scores at 6-all once more.
With 13 minutes left to play, Glebe were on the receiving end of another penalty and capitalised from close range, with Trent Toelau barging over the line to score.
Demetriou’s kick was a success and took the Wolves out to a 12-6 lead.
The Wolves then got on a roll and in the next set Demetriou broke away down the far touch line and offloaded to second rower Matt Stimson to go over for the match sealer and Demetriou converted for them to lead 18-6.
With six minutes left to play the Wolves kept up the intensity and took advantage of some tired Bears players off a kick along the ground which Liam Coleman grabbed onto and slid along the white stripe to score and Demetriou added the extras and all of a sudden it was 24-6.
With less than two minutes left to play Demetriou kicked another penalty goal to extend their lead by two.
“We knew it was going to be tough all week,” Garlick said.
“We played the Bears last time, they’re a fellow foundation club and we we beat them during the rounds and we knew they were going to come out firing.
“It was tough for a good 60-70 minutes and it was only blown out in the last ten minutes so we were prepared for that.
“It was end to end and I’ve never seen so many plenty goals kicked in a game of football and we thought this might be six all at the end of the game and we were thinking about a drop goal but we really cracked them open at the end and I think the repeat sets really wore them down.”
They will now face the Maitland Pickers in the Presdients Cup Grand Final next week, after handing them their first loss of the season last week.
"They were the most dominant team all season and were second and its going be a clash of the titans so were really excited," Garlick said.
