A 32-0 win over Central Coast in the northern zone final booked their ticket to Lake Macquarie this Saturday, but it was the semi-final victory over Newcastle that was the most impressive.

The Novocastrians were short-priced carnival favourites, but they ultimately didn’t fire a shot in a 24-4 defeat that satisfied Group 3 coach Chris Hollis.

“They were the Winx favourites of the whole tournament, don’t you worry about that,” Hollis said.

“Everyone was talking about Newcastle, but the boys stepped up, ripped in and gave it to them.”

Despite fielding a handful of Knights juniors in their squad, Newcastle were no match for a Group 3 side that ambushed them in the first half.

“I told the boys they’re the same as us, they’ve got two feet and a heartbeat, just get into them and they responded,” the coach said.

With the benefit of a howling southerly at their back, the Pride raced out to an 18-0 lead at the break, inspired by Manning duo Ethan Ferguson and Mhalikai Mercy.

“Ethan was dominant, we had a couple of set moves for him that he scored off but it was a good team effort,” Hollis said.

“Our forwards did lay the platform, we went forward and the backs did the rest.”

Port City Breakers prop Ryan Moloney terrorised the Newcastle forward pack.

“Ryan killed Newcastle, he had a massive game,” Hollis said.

Group 3 swarmed in defence with their line speed unsettling their more fancied opponents.

“We surprised ourselves, but we got up in their faces and bustled them out of it,” the coach said.

“(Newcastle) turned their toes up a bit.

“No one gets very close to them, they’ve been powerhouses for a long while and have a big area to pick from.

“I’d like to know how many they had trialling for their rep team, but I’d imagine it would have been hundreds, we only had about 40 or 50.”

Their watertight defence across the three games also pleased the Group 3 junior coach.

“We got on a high and scored 86 points for the three games and only had 12 points against,” Hollis said.

“Twelve points against in three games of Country Championship football is unbelievable, I don’t care who you’re playing.”

Group 3 will play NRL Victoria in the final at Central Charlestown and Hollis knows they will need to step up to another level.

“I thought we’d go alright, but to be honest not that good,” he said.

“We’re playing Victoria so we’ll be playing against a fair few Kiwis, so we’ll prepare like we’ve been doing.”