Errors and penalties early in the game proved costly for the Leeton Greens after falling to a 18-point defeat to DPC Roosters at Leeton No 1 Oval.
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With it being the first meeting since the 2023 grand final, the Roosters were able to make a fast start as Chaise Sergi was able to regather his own grubber after it deflected off a Leeton defender and sent Tom Bowditch over.
It would be three unanswered tries for the Roosters as they made the most of the mistakes from the Greens, with Jake Lyons and Jack Kelly getting over in quick succession.
The Greens had a couple of close calls through Jayke Stevenson and Malek Afuamua and while they lost Jim Dadea to the sinbin, the Leeton side were able to get their first points of the afternoon through Jahrel Tereva.
It was a short-lived reprieve as Guy Thompson was able to restore the margin with the Roosters leading 20-6 at the break.
The game looked to be all but killed off in the early stages of the second half as Lyons scored his second of the game and was followed over by Luke Hogan who scored off a strong break from Thompson to push the margin to 26 points.
Not to be counted out, the Greens were able to hit back with two quick tries through Billy Dickinson and Tyler Dunn but any hopes of a comeback were crushed as Jack Weymouth-Smith scored in the corner to see the Roosters hold on for a 36-18 win.
Leeton co-coach Mick Thomas felt his side went away from what they planned on a bit too much against a strong Roosters outfit.
"They are the benchmark and they showed it today," he said.
"They had three games under their belt and we probably only did what we set out to do about 50 per cent of the time and that was why they were able to score so many points.
"It was really disappointing and they were minor things and I don't think the referee was too hard on us there were just some calls that could have gone either way and we didn't capitalise on it."
Next up for Leeton will be a trip to Lake Cargelligo and Thomas feels his side will be in for a test but heads are still high.
"Lake at Lake will be a tough road trip but the confidence in the shed is still really high," he said.
"Shan and I were on the bench for the whole game and we saw plenty of positives. They are a super side and I don't think we are too far off the mark."