Orange Emus will make their sixth consecutive Blowes Clothing Cup decider appearance after ruthlessly dispatching the Cowra Eagles in Saturday's preliminary final, a stunning first-half blitz paving the way for a dominant 45-10 victory.
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Led by a masterclass from five-eighth Jamil Khalfan Emus shot to a 33-nil lead before half-time and, after rolling their bench on, scored twice more after the break to put the Eagles to the sword and set up a grand final showdown with Bathurst Bulldogs.
Khalfan was in everything in the opening half, he had a hand in four of Emus' five first-half tries, converted four of those, was superb in defence and kicked astutely to help his side all but wrap up their decider berth in the opening 40 minutes.
We'll certainly have our work cut out for us against Bathurst ... but hopefully we can get down to Anne Ashwood Park with a full 15 and get the job done.
- Emus coach Pete Bromley
What was his best performance since linking with the club this year was cut short just after half-time when he was carried from the field with a leg injury though, centre Lachie Harris picked up where he left off with a second-half double.
Emus coach Pete Bromley didn't seem overly concerned with Khalfan's injury after the game though, or replacement playmaker Matt Campbell's, focusing instead on celebrating his side setting up a rematch of the major semi-final, and last year's decider too.
"Jamil's was an injury to his shin and Campbo's copped a bit of a knock to his ankle but I don't think either of them are too serious fortunately, we'll reassess in the next couple of days because right now we're just pleased to have earned that rematch with Bulldogs," Bromley said.
"That's the sixth straight grand final for the club now and that's a big achievement. It is a pity it couldn't be here at Endeavour Oval but I guess it'll just make it all the sweeter now if we can go down there and cause an upset over Bathurst.
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"We'll certainly have our work cut out for us against Bathurst, they're obviously going to be favourites being the minor premiers and now hosting the grand final, but hopefully we can get down to Anne Ashwood Park with a full 15 and get the job done."
It took just four minutes for Emus' rout to begin and it came from a tone-setting win in the clash's opening scrum, the greens pinching possession against the head.
Charlie Henley latched onto a nice hand-off from Michael Graham to charge over and Carter Hirini scored his first not long after, finishing a Levi Russell break after he was put through a gaping hole by Khalfan.
WATCH: Charlie Henley crashes over for Emus' first try in their 35-point win over Cowra...
Khalfan, Hirini and Russell linked again just five minutes later, a movement that began with the former chipping ahead and finished with Tom Green diving over in the corner.
Hirini scored his second at the 26-minute mark after another movement started by a sterling cut-out ball from the greens' five-eighth and then completed a scintillating first-half hat-trick six out from half-time, this time finishing a Harris break.
Khalfan's four goals gave Emus the 33-nil lead they enjoyed at that break and while Cowra rallied somewhat in the second half, it didn't take a genius to figure out the game was all but decided before the restart.
"If it wasn't, it was certainly very close. Or at least it had certainly pushed momentum our way," Bromley said.
"The first half was good. We'd spoken about it before the game and said we wanted to come out hard and build a decent lead by half-time. We did that and it allowed us to roll on our bench on, preserve some bodies and work on a few things ahead of Bathurst next week."
The Eagles actually drew first blood in the second period through Bryce McKinnon, was the finishing touch on a triple blow for the greens.
First Khalfan was carried off and then Russell was yellow carded, before the Cowra prop barged his way over.
It was short-lived glee for the Eagles though, as Harris crossed just eight minutes later.
Having just returned to the field Russell slotted the conversion in Khalfan's absence, pushing Emus' lead to 40-5.
Amani Waqabuli scored a consolation try for the Eagles on the hour before Harris busted through and went virtually the length two off a scrum just before full-time, his try capping Emus' win and an individual performance that proved exactly why he's been named in the NSW Country side.
WATCH: Lachie Harris busts through to score Emus' final try in Saturday's preliminary final...
Cowra skipper Tim Berry was diplomatic albeit disappointed after the 35-point defeat, saying the difference was simply how well Emus executed in point-scoring opportunities.
"We were pretty slow out of the blocks and we just didn't capitalise on the time we spent in Emus' half in the first half. They did, they took their chances when they got them. We gave them a sniff and poof, they were gone," Berry said.
"It was tough to back up from [last week's minor semi-final win] but we had our full side and it was just unfortunate we couldn't take advantage of our opportunities.
"I did think after we scored first in the second half there was a small chance of coming back but they took it away pretty quickly and all credit to them, they're a great side and they put it together [on Saturday].
"They played for 80 minutes and we didn't. Our second half was a lot better, we wanted to show some pride in the jersey after putting in a lot of hard work during the season."
- ORANGE EMUS 45 (Carter Hirini 3, Lachie Harris 2, Tom Green, Charlie Henley tries; Jamil Khalfan 4, Levi Russell conversions) def COWRA EAGLES 10 (Bryce McKinnon, Amani Waqabuli tries)
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