By Tallon Smith

The Collarenebri Bulldogs celebrated victory for the first time in two years when they defeated Walgett’s Newtown Wanderers 46-38 in the first match of the Barwon Darling Rugby League season at home on Sunday.

The Bulldogs’ victory in the high-scoring affair also marked a special occasion for the club, who finally laced up the boots after spending last season in recess.

The competition, which features clubs in the former CRL district of Group 15, sees five clubs competing for the ultimate prize in Far North West rugby league.

NSWRL Club and Competition Support Coordinator for the Group 14 and 15 Districts Jack Ramage says that the match was a “great start to the BDRL season.”

“Collarenebri got a great win at home to start their season off after sitting out of the competition in 2022,” he said.

Quoted in the BDRL’s weekly media release, Collarenebri President Brendan Sweeney said the match was a “pretty fast game.”

“The high scores probably show how unfit everyone is at the start of the season,” he said.

“We were up 46-18 with about 20 minutes to play but there was a momentum shift and Newtown started to get some possession and scored a handful of quick tries.”

“At that stage I thought they were going to run us down.”

An excited Sweeney said that the club were in a better position than in years prior.

“We only had about 12-13 players lined up about five weeks ago but we had to sit four of five out on the weekend,” he said.

“We will lose a few here and there during shearing season but there are 21 registered.”

“We go to Goodooga [next] weekend which will be a huge test, they won last year and have a very good forward pack.”

Sweeney also spoke of the club’s future, with a key facet of that future being the return of the under 15s side.

“We have our under 15s side back as well this year too which is fantastic, we haven’t had an under 15s side for about 15 years.”

In the other fixture last weekend, the Bourke Warriors ran out 36-16 winners over the Brewarrina Golden Googars at Bourke.

Brewarrina did manage to claim victories over the Warriors though, winning 16-12 in Ladies League Tag and 20-4 in the Under 15s competition. Under 18s saw Brewarrina forfeit to Bourke, whilst there were no matches in these grades in the Collarenebri-Newtown fixture.

In fixtures this weekend (May 13/14), as mentioned Collarenebri travel to Goodooga whilst Newtown host Bourke at Walgett No. 1 Oval.