Captain-coach Anthony Cowan out for season as Macleay Valley Mustangs' semi-final hopes fade

That's the aftermath of the 28-14 loss to the Old Bar Pirates at Old Bar.

Cowan dislocated his shoulder midway through the second half and was taken from the field in agony.

He showed touches of his vintage best when setting up a try for the hard running second rower Ethan Cowper in the first half when Cowper hit a gap off a perfectly timed Cowan pass.

Cowan said it will be 12 days before he can start doing exercise and moving the shoulder and an overall six week recovery period for him.

"I'm still in a bit of pain and not getting much sleep at night," Cowan said. "I'm sleeping upright at the moment and I can't lie on my side.

"I will be watching from the sideline for the rest of the season. I know that will be its own kind of pain, not being able to play with the boys."

The loss leaves the Mustangs on five points and in second last place. They'd need to win all their remaining matches and rely on other results going their way to feature in this season's finals series.

"It pretty much puts us out of that contention now," Cowan said. "We really needed to win that game against Old Bar and the boys knew that.

"It's not the result we wanted and were looking for, but I think Old Bar were just too good. We were right in the game for about 60 minutes, but their back-to-back tries broke our backs in the end."

Scores were locked at 10-10 at halftime. The Mustangs led 10-4 at one point following tries to winger Braith Powick and Cowper and a goal to fullback/winger Shane Davis-Caldwell.

Powick and Davis-Caldwell both played under 18s early in the afternoon where Davis-Caldwell scored 30 points.

Powick showed pace when he was given space down the sideline and dashed 80 metres to score to open Macleay's account.

The Mustangs only troubled the scorer once in the second half when Dennis Ritchie dived over from dummy half to make the score 22-14. A late try to the home side put the contest out of Macleay's reach.

There was better news in the minor grades, with Macleay winning reserve grade 20-10 and walloping Old Bar 58-18 in under 18s.

Macleay will host second placed Forster-Tuncurry on Sunday.

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