“We defended really well all day, attack was a lot better, but we just couldn’t get that second try in the second half,” Smailes said after the loss which ended Cessnock’s hopes of making the Newcastle Rugby League semi-finals.

“It’s a shame we missed the semis because we didn’t win that game, but if we had have played like that all season we would have definitely been there.

People will say if you had won that game you would have been in the semis. But if we played like that for the rest of the year  we would have won another three games and been sitting pretty.

“We got big Uiti Baker from the Knights and he played a great game. 

“He is a real good front rower, unfortunately, I don't know if we’ll have him again this week against Kurri.

The Goannas held Wests scoreless in the first half to take an 8-0 lead into the break, courtesy of a Samuel Apthorpe try and two goals by Brent Mendyk.

But on their home ground and with their best line-up on the field the Rosellas were able to prevail with two second half converted tries.

“Wests had their best team on the field and to keep them scoreless for a half at Harker was a fantastic effort,” Smailes said.

“It wasn’t endeav

Smailes hands the reins of senior coach over to Steve Kidd at the end of the season and would love to go out with a win against arch-rivals Kurri Kurri in their final game of the season at Cessnock Sportsground.

The Bulldogs secured a semi-final berth courtesy of a 26-22 win against Central Newcastle and the Goannas loss’  

“It’s a good thing we’ve got Kurri in the last game. It gives you something to aim for it’s not just a game that doesn’t mean anything as a Kurri game always means a lot,” Smailes said.

“Even though we are not going to play semi-final footy it’s nice to have that in our last game and hopefully get a win have something else to hang our hat on at the end of the year. Beating them twice would be nice.”

Smailes said after a dream run with injuries in the first half of the season, the past six weeks had been a nightmare for the Goannas on the injury front.

“We ended up losing both front rowers and a couple of injuries came at times in the game when we were going well and the blokes who got injured were our key players,” he said.

“Kori Barber got hurt at Wests in the game a couple of weeks ago and he was causing a lot of trouble and he goes off.

“Brendan Hlad was a big loss as well as he made a lot of metres up the centre and was a real on-field leader.”