A gallant defeat against the Port Macquarie Pirates has landed the Kempsey Cannonballs in third place heading into the Mid North Coast Rugby Union northern division finals.
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In a three tries a piece game, it was the boot of Pirate's player Rhys Martin that proved to be the difference, with the Pirates claiming a 22-17 win over Kempsey.
Unlike in their round 11 clash, there was no last-minute heroics by the Cannonballs as the Pirates held on to win by five points for the second week in a row.
Kempsey Cannonballs coach Jared Fuller said it was disappointing to lose the game and the top-two position.
"It was disappointing, I'm not going to lie," he said. "I thought we started well, but when we had good field position, I think we rushed things and that led to some mistakes.
"We let the pressure off at different times and that's something that's been happening a couple of times that we want to address.
"We left a couple of tries out there, and the Pirates were better than us in the second half.
"We just have to be more patient when we have those opportunities to score."
While the Cannonballs have now ended their season in third place, Fuller said the team will be looking to "make amends" when they host Grafton in the minor semi-final on Sunday, August 13.
"Obviously, we would've loved a top-two finish, but it's not something we can dwell on," he said. "We just have to concentrate on our home semi-final on Sunday.
"We really need to look to make amends on Sunday and fix those errors in our game."
The result has leapfrogged the Pirates into second place and propelled them into the major semi-final against the minor premiers, the Coffs Harbour Snappers, in Coffs Harbour.
Gray said their desperation to secure the second spot on the ladder led the way to victory on Saturday.
"I think overall we were just desperate to win," he said. "We knew that we needed to win to finish second, and I think that pulled us through.
"I thought we were good when we needed to be. We weren't flash, but we did the basics well."
Gray said he was expecting a tough game against the Snappers as they look to build on their defence this week, with both teams eyeing the carrot of playing for a home grand final.
"Coffs Harbour are a great team... but so are we," he said.
"We have some strong ball carriers, we have some angry men and we've got some fast men, so we''re going to go up there and give it our best shot."
The Kempsey Cannonballs Club has a strong finals campaign ahead of them with the reserve grade playing Coffs Harbour in the major semi-final on Saturday, while the under-14s, under-16s, under-18s and first grade will all play in the minor semi-finals on Sunday.
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