League tag coach Steve Mooney has been buoyed by the side’s impressive 10 – 4 win against Bathurst Panthers on Sunday declaring that they’ll make the semi’s easily.

“We’re really starting to get it together on the field and especially the new younger players are beginning to show their potential,” he said.

It was two of the stalwarts of the team, Olivia Bird and Sophie Stammers, who crossed the line on Sunday and Mooney believes that it’s the side’s emphasis on quality defence that is making the difference.

“With good defence you just frustrate the hell out of the other side and it’s their mistakes that you can then capitalise on,” he said.

It was a dearth of heavy hitting forwards that resulted in the hefty 46-0 loss by the under 18’s on Sunday says co-coach Jack Nixon.

And with two out from injury and a no-show, the small team was well down on numbers.

“We’ve only got three reserves and when someone doesn’t turn up, we’re in trouble,” he said.

At fourth place on the ladder, Nixon is hoping that the next round will be all the Bear’s.

“We could be running third and should have beaten Cowra and Hawks, so we just need to win some early in the next round," he said.

When it comes to exciting games of footy, they don’t get much better than the match played on Sunday.

From the onset the Bears were on the front foot, and their thumping defence caused the Panthers to make a number of careless mistakes, including an intercepted pass by Mitch Evers that saw him sprinting the length of the field, hotly pursued by Doug Hewitt.

With the Bears leading 14-4 at half-time, the Panther’s regrouped in the second half, and with Jacob Barnes making his debut in the front row, the tide turned against Blayney.