By Tallon Smith

The Woodbridge Cup will feature a record fourteen teams in 2024 after applications from the Blayney Bears and Cowra Magpies were accepted last week.

The two Group 10 clubs played in the Peter McDonald Premiership Reserve Grade this season after they were unable to field First Grade teams due to the rapid rise in competition standard and salaries in the past few years.

Cowra Magpies President Bruce Wallace said that the club is excited about what the future holds for them in their new competition.

“We [have been] accepted into the Woodbridge Cup, which we’re looking very much forward to,” he said.

“The good thing about [the Woodbridge Cup] is they have Juniors, the Mid West Cup that Group 10 were proposing had no Junior base.

“We have committed to it for two years.”

After news of the move began to filter out, may people began to question whether the Magpies, and to a lesser extent the Bears, would be too strong for the competition, suggestions that the Cowra President denied.

“We will definitely be competitive, but I would not say we’d be dominant,” Wallace said.

“There are three very strong clubs in Woodbridge, them being Manildra, Canowindra and Trundle, and obviously the same as any other competition there are teams there that are not so good.

“Maybe next year we’ll be better next year, but as our first year into the competition we’ll be competitive but not dominant.”

As for the state of the game in the area, and where Cowra’s long-term future lies, Wallace said that the current climate surrounding both the extravagant means needed to compete in the Peter McDonald Premiership and the town’s ability to produce and attract enough quality players for that level of competition meant that it was likely they would remain in the competition well beyond the current two-year arrangement.  

“Basically the way it stands now, we will always be, I think from this point onwards, a three grade club,” he said.

“I can’t see us in the distant future being able to have four grades, there’s not the player base here, there’s not the employment here, there’s not the rentals here to attract big name players.

“So I believe we’ll be a three grade club for quite some time, obviously [that means] we fit into [Woodbridge] very well.

“They’re very happy to have us in their competition, they seem to think we’ll bring a lot of energy, and add to their competition.”

The clubs’ departure from the Peter McDonald Premiership makes them the third and fourth teams to be lost from Group football in the district since the PMP’s announcement, after Narromine and Dubbo Westside left Group 11, with the former moving to the Castlereagh League and the latter folding altogether.

The Woodbridge Cup is now the largest competition in all of regional Australia by the number of participating clubs in its top grade.

Cover Image: Cowra’s 2023 Grand Final team.