If Pirates wanted to make a statement to start the second round they certainly did that on Saturday.
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Delivering a strong reminder that they shouldn't be discarded in the premiership conversation, they dominated Gunnedah for the better part of three-quarters of their Round 10 clash to post a 46-29 win.
"We showed the competition how we can play," co-coach Garry Walsh said.
Putting on a show for their 'Old Boys' and ladies, with the club celebrating Old Boys Day and Ladies Day, the first 50 minutes was some of the best football they've put together this season.
They played "some beautiful footy", and had the Red Devils chasing their tails pretty much from the moment captain Nick McCrohon exploded through for Conrad Starr to score a couple of phases later and give them a 5-nil lead four minutes in.
Down 17-nil in the corresponding game in the first round, there was no fear of a repeat of that as winger Ramedre Naburu, who was one of eight Pirates backing up from last weekend's NSW Country Championships, strolled over after some good drives from the forwards helped create an overlap.
Taking them to 10-nil after 11 minutes, there was a precision and surety about Pirates play that hadn't been there in recent games.
The Red Devils did have their moments, but they were comparatively fleeting as Brad Male and Sam Collett pushed the home side's lead out to 20-5 at half-time.
After starting the second half in the same manor as the first, with replacement half-back Livai Kai's scintillating run from almost his 22, setting Jack Edwards up, by 10 minutes in the score had blown out to 34-5, and it looked a question of by how much, rather than if they were going to win.
"The boys, the first 50 minutes especially, really put in," outside centre Devon Hamley said speaking to media post-match.
"We stuck to our tackles, we stuck to our game plan, we spread the ball really well ... and our forward pack was really strong again, really put them under the pump, and then the backs played off the back of that and got the rewards."
Six of the eight tries went to the backs with Edwards crossing for a double.
Looking to bounce back from a disappointing last round loss to Narrabri, Hamley, who was making his run-on debut on Saturday, said the final message from the coaches, and McCrohon, was "all about action".
"It was all about just getting out there and letting our actions on the field do the talking, really putting them to the sword, hitting them hard, running through them, all that sort of stuff," he said.
They certainly adhered to that.
It wasn't all positive, however, with Male's season potentially done after injuring his hamstring.
They also lost Kai to cramp mid-way through the second half, which [Garry] Walsh felt contributed to their game dropping away in the last 30 minutes.
Having to reshuffle things, they lost a bit of shape.
The Red Devils, to their credit, kept fighting to the final whistle and had some good passages of attack at stages through the game, but just slipped off too many first-up tackles in that first 50 minutes.
