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Published on: 8/23/2005
Last Visited: 8/23/2005
INVERELL coach Scott Bremner was focusing on the positives after his side came within five points of an historic home Central North grand final on Saturday.
The Highlanders will now host Narrabri in the preliminary final after going down to Moree 27-22 in their major semi-final clash but the match was a valuable learning tool, Bremner said.
"We needed the experience.We've got a lot of young guys and it was a good experience for them , it was a nail-biter," he said.
"We've learnt a lot from it."
The home side started the better of the two sides and was camped in the Bulls' half for a majority of the first 15 minutes but just failed to come up with the points, knock-ons and turnovers in good attacking opportunities proving costly.
That, in part, Bremner put down to his side being overawed by the occasion.
"We were very nervous in the first half and lacked a fair bit of urgency," Bremner said.
"We just went through the motions in the first half and relied on our second half to get us home."
The Highlanders were also guilty in those early stages of spreading the ball too early before they had drawn in the defence, rather than building pressure through the phases, which they have had success with throughout the regular season.
Bremner wasn't taking anything away from the Bulls though.
"Moree deserved to win.They played smart footy, they're finals professionals," he said.
"In semi-finals you've got to take your opportunities early."
Bremner said the Bulls played smarter and forced his side to vary from their game plan but still took more positives from the game than