0°C | Tuesday April 29, 2025 
11 September 2023
By James Mullan
North Shore Bombers: Minor Premiers left heart broken
Despite having the best regular season record, breezing through the finals and beating the UNSW Bulldogs in their three matchups this season, the Bombers have failed to take out the AFL Sydney Premier Division Premiership in the game that counted.
The Bombers were in uncharacteristically slow scoring form on Saturday, struggling to break the Bulldogs’ suffocating defense. Mitch Crisafulli did stand up, coming off the bench in his 100th premier division game. He, along with Nicholas Brewer, Ned Campbell, Jack Dillon, Jake Veale and Finn Chalmers, were best on ground for the Bombers. Only managing 6 goals and 11 behinds in the contest, UNSW took out the premiership 66-46. Alas, it was another year of heartbreak for the Bombers who lost last years’ grand final in a similar way, also at the hands of the Bulldogs.
The club said “It hurts. It’s a tough lesson to go down in a Grand Final. Tonight we hurt. But we’ll be back. We love this club, we love this game; and we’ll be back.”
This season the Bombers had set the tone only dropping one game out of 16 to claim the minor premiership by a convincing 12 competition points.
There was some consolation, with the club taking out the Premier Reserves and Platinum Reserves Premierships. The Premier Reserves had an impressive, clutch win just edging Sydney Uni out 43-40.
North Sydney Bears: Grand Final journey becomes a lot harder
Heading into their week 2 of the NSW Cup finals match up with Souths the equation was simple for the Bears. Win and they would advance through to the Grand Final. Thanks to their top of the table finish, Norths advanced straight to week two of the finals.
The Bears started the game well with holding off early Souths pressure then scoring a try just five minutes in thanks to winger Allan Fitzgibbon. This would turn out to be the only bright spot in the first half for Norths, made even worse by the Rabbitohs tallying up 24 unanswered points. Fitzgibbon would essentially replicate his first try at the start of the second half, followed quickly by Reuben Porter storming over the line set up from a Jess Marschke line break. With the conversion, the Bears brought it back to a 14-24 margin before Fitzgibbon made it a hatrick on the 62nd minute from an incredible finish in the corner.
The Bunnies bit back with a try of their own just eight minutes later only for the Bears to respond three minutes on through Regan Hughes. After the successful conversion it was 24-30. Unfortunately, Norths couldn’t find another try and this would be the final score. Goal kicking was the difference in the end as the Bears went 2 from 5 while the Rabbitohs went 5 from 5.
Norths’ season isn’t dead but they will have to go beat the New Zealand Warriors to advance through to the Grand Final. The Warriors finished 3rd this season and are coming off a dominant 49-6 victory over Canberra. Meanwhile, Souths have booked their spot in the Grand Final and will await the winner of this week’s match up.
Bears vs Warriors will be on Saturday, 2:00PM at Leichhardt Oval