Both games were hard-fought tussles with Albies getting over a spirited Glen Innes/Guyra 29-10 and the Blues escaping with the points 33-25.

Blues coach Luke Stephen lauded the character his side showed, trailing by four with five minutes remaining and a player in the bin.

Alex Barrett put them in front with about three minutes to go, Brennan Czinner then scoring on full-time to seal the result.

It was a see-sawing encounter with Robb leading 10-7 at half-time. The Blues then got out to 21-13 before the students reclaimed the advantage 25-21.

Stephen was particularly impressed with their defence.

“We didn’t have much ball for the first 20 minutes and pretty much had to tackle the whole time,” he said.

They were twice down a man, but on both occasions managed to score points.

“To score 19 points when we were a man down is testament to the boys and their patience,” Stephen said.

The other game was moved to Alcatraz after Bellevue Oval was closed and saw the GhostStags take it to the premiers.

They led for a large portion of the first half, and are going to be quite formidable Albies co-coach Chris Kelly predicted.

“We played well but we were just very patchy,” Kelly said. “The execution at the final point was not quite where it needed to be.”

“We played reasonably well into their hands. 

“We changed our tactics a bit late in the first half and got on the board.”

They then ran away with it in the second half.

“We’ll be better for the hit-out,” Kelly said.

“A lot of the guys weren’t in the best condition they could be but played large patches of the game.”