WARILLA trailed at halftime, and finished with just 12 men on the park, but found enough to outlast Jamberoo 30-26 on Sunday.
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The young Gorillas have been thereabouts against the competition's big guns Gerringong and Nowra-Bomaderry this season only to fade down the stretch.
The Roos looked to pile on the same pressure late but the Gorillas were good enough to hold on and get a firmer grasp on a finals spot.
Gorillas co-coach Neil Farmilo said his side felt a big scalp was coming if they could produce that elusive 80 minutes.
"In a lot of our games we've started strong and then fallen away so we're just looking for 80-minute performances," Farmilo said.
"If we do the little things right we know we can give ourselves a good chance to win the game. Over the last four weeks we've had a lot of injuries, we're giving young guys a go and they're really stepping up for us.
"Jamberoo are a great team and you've got to play for 80 minutes. We kind of let them back into it but we stuck to our guns and did the things we talked about during the week, kick long, tackle hard, little things add up to big things.
"We've just got to keep winning. If we keep winning we're in control of our own destiny and that's what we're trying to do."
It was the second straight week in which the Roos surrendered a halftime lead, this time costing them a full two points after taking one away from a last-start draw with Gerringong.
Captain-coach Jono Dallas conceded the Gorillas were simply keener for the scrap.
"They were a bit more up for it than us to be honest," Dallas said.
"We had a similar issue to last week, particularly in the second half, where we weren't able to gain field position. Last week we were on the [wrong] end of a big penalty count, today it wasn't that.
"We were pretty good with our discipline, they just controlled their ball better, they had much less kick pressure, they were on us a lot harder than we were on them.
"When we got the ball at out end we probably didn't have as many roll-up-your-sleeves hard carries. Every play-the-ball, whether we had the ball or we didn't, we were getting up second.
"They were the better team on the day, for sure."
Elsewhere, Nowra-Bomaderry saw off Albion Park 48-28, Shellharbour edged past Kiama 20-18 and Stingrays were too good for Berry-Shoalhaven, winning 28-16.