There was a huge amount of emotion around the Wellington Cowboys in the lead-up to Sunday's Peter McDonald Premiership clash with Forbes.
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There was real excitement around the homecoming of former NRL star Blake Ferguson but that was also mixed with the sadness of the recent loss of former Cowboy and respected community member, Uncle Colin Hill.
And while Sunday's match wasn't always pretty, the Cowboys were able to harness that emotion and use it in a 24-14 win over the defending premiers.
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The Cowboys retired the number 13 jersey for the day as it was what Hill wore and they ran out past it to start the match.
"That win was for our Uncle Col," captain-coach Justin Toomey-White said at full-time.
A strong crowd was at Kennard Park for the occasion and while things got a little unruly at times - the referee stopped the match and called on the ground manager to warn spectators for their language at one point - the car horns were ringing out at full-time following a meaningful victory.
The result made the return of Ferguson all the more special and the man himself was delighted to be back.
"This is where I grew up. For me to come back here, it's really good to finally be home," Ferguson said.
"That was good. Making it special was doing it for our Uncle who passed away and it was a scrappy game but we dug in like the Wello Cowboys of old when I was playing.
"We just hung in and made it gritty and we got there in the end."
Ferguson was lining up for the Cowboys since 2007 on Sunday and there was family in friends in attendance after his marquee signing was confirmed in the past week.
The Origin and Australian player didn't have the huge impact some expected but his strength when running the ball was clear to see while he kicked four-from-four and enjoyed an engrossing battle with Forbes star Mitch Andrews throughout the 80 minutes.
"That's what it's all about," Ferguson said of sometimes heated clash with Andrews.
"You can talk as much as you want on the field but at the end of the game you shake hands and say congratulations.
"It was good to be out there."
Andrews said he relished the duel with Ferguson as well but as enjoyable as that was, the overall performance from Forbes was disappointing.
![The battle between Mitch Andrews, left, and Blake Ferguson was one of the highlights of Sunday's match. Picture by Nick Guthrie The battle between Mitch Andrews, left, and Blake Ferguson was one of the highlights of Sunday's match. Picture by Nick Guthrie](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/dCXpDgwTEgA52iNCe5aWtJ/c264622c-c3e5-4956-bfc8-e286ca85f282.JPG/r543_781_2963_2268_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Forwards Tongia Fox and Mick Coady were put on report for separate incidents while Jordan Hartwig was sent to the sin-bin for a professional foul late on.
The Magpies had a number of tries ruled out for forward passes and while Andrews - captain-coach at Forbes alongside Nick Greenhalgh - lamented some of the decisions he said it was a match his side had chances to win.
"She's one that slipped away. That's been a couple of them this season now when we've got in the game but haven't finished it off," he said, Forbes having come into the game after a draw with Macquarie.
"We know coming across to Wello is always hard and they got a few 50-50 calls and you ask for those when you're at home and while we don't like it, at the end of the day your crowd is here to support you and it's good the community came out to the support them. Apart from a few, who they kept warning and warning but no-one got pushed out the gate."
Both sides had tries disallowed for forward passes early in Sunday's match before Wellington crossed first when Brock Naden, playing in the unfamiliar position of halfback, sliced through.
The sides then traded tries before Elijah Colliss went through a huge gap to score off a scrum while the Forbes defence expected the ball to go to Ferguson.
Dylan Gunn crossed for Forbes right before the break to keep his side in the game before the second half turned into a fiery slug-fest.
Only two tries were scored in the second stanza, the first from Andrews after a simply brilliant tackle-busting 90m effort after collecting a kick on his own 10m line.
Preston Simpson bagged his second 12 minutes from time when Jai Merritt kicked early in the set and despite some late Forbes pressure the Cowboys hung on to score a third win from four rounds.
"Our community loves football and the crowd turned up for Ferg's homecoming and it was a special day," Toomey-White said.
"We knew it was going to be hard. It's hard to take emotion out of it but emotion also gets you through games. It wasn't pretty bur we'll take that win."
Wellington is now in a four-way share of top spot in the Group 11 pool with Dubbo CYMS, the Parkes Spacemen and the Nyngan Tigers while Forbes and Macquarie are both three points back.
Forbes' two losses this season have come away from home and Andrews said that may be something he and Greenhalgh look at before a testing trip to Nyngan next weekend.
- WELLINGTON COWBOYS 24 (Preston Simpson 2, Brock Naden, Elijah Colliss tries; Blake Ferguson 4 goals) defeated FORBES MAGPIES 14 (Toby Hurford, Dylan Gunn, Mitch Andrews tries; Nick Greenhalgh goal)
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