The Ratz ended Wallamba's unbeaten season through the rolling boulder charges of their captain-coach, the 125kg lock David Rees, who ran in two powerhouse tries, the last a ferocious, last-minute effort to stifle the Bulls' creative playmaker, Chris Tout.

The afternoon began with a NAIDOC ceremony by the Biripi community - "We are the Shark people - Waka, Bula-Bula!" - before the afternoon's first rugby game in which Manning River club's impressive women prevailed without their splendid young player, Lucy Green, on representative duty, to win, 61-0.

In perfectly warm winter conditions, the one factor marring a grand afternoon of football on a splendidly surfaced Taree Rugby Park was the similarity of the players' blue and black uniforms, which caused confusion among spectators as well as to the players themselves.

In future clashes, if perhaps the home team wore white shorts it would differentiate adequately between the two clubs and create less confusion among spectators.

Wallamba's littlest champion, Daniel Hessing, never ceases to amaze. He won the first lineout and continued to excel to the point he won referee Michael Wooster's joint vote as player-of-the-match with try-scoring hero, Rees.

Referee Wooster's patience with the players was strained to the limit with their frequent back-chatting and contradiction of his rulings, questioning his knowledge of the Laws of the Game, when clearly their own ignorance of the laws was at fault, ending with a penalty try awarded to Wallamba.

Consequently, there followed a string of yellow cards with players seated on the sideline, at one stage with four players "serving time."

Trained to the nines, Andy Paynter's Bulls were brave to the end, but they simply lacked the big forwards to halt the runs of Rees and Blake Howard, through the captain's judiciously timed interventions off the bench, organised at the instigation of club president, Steven Rees.

Despite David Rees' try-scoring exploits, it was the exciting running of Mid North Coast Axeman representative fullback, Michael Bailey, which won the Manning River Old Boys' inscribed mug as Player-of-the-Match.

On an outstanding day's rugby, Manning River's rolling boulders didn't gather moss, but through the efforts of their Old Boys, the Manning River club raised $5000 for charity for the First Steps Count Child and Community Centre, with half of the proceeds retained by the club.

"We believe this is the best team we can assemble, and we think we can only improve," Steven Rees said.

"We have to realise we field a bigger, stronger team than our rivals. We can't go around them, we can't finesse them. We have to go through them."

Adding to the success of the day, the Ratz' women's team extended their unbeaten run to four games with a 61-0 defeat of the Wallamba Bulls, a game in which Talisha Goolagong ran in four tries and club secretary, the splendid Keely Holden, was heralded player-of-the-match.

The Manning River Ratz and the Forster Tuncurry Dolphins will travel into the ranges to Gloucester this Saturday with the Dolphins playing the Ratz after the women's game between the Manning River Ratz and the Gloucester Cockies.