In the battle between the 2016 and 2017 premiers in the 2018 Mount Isa Rugby League preliminary final it was the latter who prevailed.
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The 2016 premiers Cloncurry Eagles carried form into the game coming in as minor premiers and having beaten Town in the last week of regular season but last year’s top dogs were up for the finals challenge.
Townies gained the ascendancy in the second half to put their place in the grand final but victory looked far from assured in the opening stanza.
Town got over for the first four pointer of the day after seven minutes but another seven minutes later a swift Curry move made it 6-6.
Then Town’s influential five-eighth Alan Helsinger made his first telling contribution to score a stunning breakaway try before Cloncurry came down the other end to snatch the lead for the first time 12-10.
Another dynamite length of the field move from the Eagles brought them an 18-10 lead and at that stage, they looked the goods.
But William Buckingham grabbed his first try right on half time to narrow the gap to two points.
In the second half it was all one way traffic – in the direction of the Cloncurry goal.
Helsinger scored another scintillating try and Buckingham grabbed his second too.
Handling errors crept into the Eagles’ game as they became frustrated.
They could not add another single point to their first half tally while Town breached their line four times.
In the end it was a comfortable win for Townies.
Final score Town 38, Cloncurry 18.
In the elimination finals, Brothers played their first final in 20 years but narrowly went down to Wanderers 32-26.
Wanderers now play Cloncurry this Saturday for the right to play Town in the final.