Monaro is through to next weekend's Country Championships final but Sunday's hard-fought triumph over Central Coast came at a hefty cost after star man Jake Wheeler was helped from the field late on.
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Two-try hero Wheeler will have scans on a left ankle injury on Monday, but early indications suggest the Queanbeyan Blues skipper will miss Sunday's decider and potentially the start of this year's Canberra Raiders Cup season.
It was a cruel end to an otherwise superb afternoon for Monaro, who overcame an early deficit to prevail 18-10 against the determined visitors at Seiffert Oval.
And the iconic Queanbeyan venue may yet be the scene for Sunday's final, with NSWRL to determine the venue early this week pending the weather situation in Greater Sydney. The match could also be played in Wollongong, after Illawarra downed Riverina 24-16 in Sunday's other semi-final.
Monaro were forced to overcome a sluggish start on Sunday, but they dug in resolutely to defend their goal line and Wheeler's try in the left corner just before half-time sparked a revival.
"We couldn't have played any worse in that first half, I think we completed 20 per cent which is pretty much unheard of," captain-coach Terry Campese said.
"I'll go home and do all the stats tonight and just see how many tackles we had to make. Our boys made a truckload of tackles, and for them to get out of that situation under fatigue just shows the grit and determination to get that victory.
"We spoke at half-time that that try would've deflated them, we thought if we could start fast in that second half they would fall off.
"They hung in there and come up with the win and put ourselves in the unique position to play in the gf."
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Monaro were forced into an early reshuffle when Jake Butler-Fleming was forced to pull out before kickoff after hurting his groin in the warm up.
"We had a few wounded boys, we had our fullback pull out in the warm up so we had to make some really late changes which probably hurt our team a little bit," Campese said.
Jack Frasca's early try gave Central Coast the perfect start, but the Roosters missed several opportunities to extend their lead.
Country Championships at Seiffert Oval.
Men's - Monaro 18 (J Wheeler 2, B Prior tries, T Campese 3 goals) def Central Coast 10 (J Frasca, H Ridee tries, C Davies goal)
Illawarra 24 (D Efaraimo, C Perham, D Farrell, J Jones, T Simpsons tries, C Vazzoler 2 goals) def Riverina 16 (R McQueen, J Goodwin, C Hodge tries, J Luff 2 goals)
Women's - Riverina 12 (T Staines, J Carter, N Clemson tries) def Monaro 8 (A Ingram, S Afele tries)
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
