With gun five-eighth Jake Mullaney leading the charge, Southern proved too classy for Western as the former Parramatta and Wests Tigers NRL player scored two tries in the 12-point victory.

Jackson believes poor ball handling proved telling in the loss, Western's fourth straight winless campaign since Group 10 and Group 11 returned to the Country Championship as the Rams in 2013 where they lost 40-28 against the Central Coast, before Greater Northern Tigers claimed victory in 2014 and 2015, 12-6 and 48-40 respectively.

“We're gutted,” Jackson said.

“We've had the best preparation we've had in years, but at the end of the day we didn't play well enough to win the game.

“We didn't catch the ball off the kick-off, we were trapped in-goal and then it was 6-0 and then 12-0 pretty quickly. 

“You look back on those little moments that cost us tries and it hurts. 

“We only lost by two tries. 

“Our ball control was ordinary though. 

“I can’t fault the boys’ effort. 

“From one to 18, the boys all put in a huge amount of work.”

On the back of some Mullaney magic, Southern shot out to a 12-4 lead before their advantage was later trimmed to 18-10 at half-time, Dubbo CYMS gun Jyie Chapman and Nyngan half Jacob Neill both finding the line for Western throughout the first 40 minutes.

With NRL talent stacked in their line-up - Jacob Loko, Ray Cashmere, Michael Lett and Mullaney all have top flight experience - the Stars scored the first two tries of the second period to race to a 26-10 lead by the 54-minute mark.

Cowra’s Warren Williams barged his way over soon after, but his efforts were cancelled out by Southern’s fifth try.

A consolation four-pointer to Parkes’ Sam Dwyer with three minutes remaining brought the final scoreline to 32-20.

After a campaign that began in October when he named a 99-man train-on squad, Jackson said for it all to come down to one game, lost by 12 points, was bitterly disappointing.

But, the former Country Rugby League Player of the Year said there is no need to change the cut-throat nature of the championships.

“It is what it is,” he said.

“It was like that when I played and every team is in the same boat.

“It's disappointing.

“I think once you get over that first game, you just get better and better, unfortunately we didn’t get past that first game though.”

Jackson labelled the work of both starting front-rowers Luke Thompson and Brent Seager as immense, while halves Neill and Colby Pellow performed well as Western endeavoured to chase points from the outset.

“It’s really hard to single anyone out though,” Jackson added.

“I know the boys are disappointed as a whole. 

“I’ve spoken to a few of them and they are all keen to put their hands up again which is great.”

Greater Southern Stars will now play the Greater Northern Tigers in the tier two semi-finals at Dubbo next weekend. 

Riverina and Northern Rivers meet in the second semi-final.

GREATER SOUTHERN STARS 32 (J Mullaney 2, D Johnston, J Burke, J Clarke, C Brown tries; A Provost 4 goals) def WESTERN RAMS 20 (J Chapman, J Neill, W Williams, S Dwyer tries; C Pellow 2 goals).