By Tallon Smith

Group 20 Rugby League has thrown Yanco-Wamoon a much-needed lifeline after accepting an application by the club to play the remainder of the season in the Reserve Grade competition after a tough start to the 2024 First Grade season.

The application, which was submitted last week, requested that the Hawks be able to move their senior squad into the Reserves competition, after their attempt at fielding both sides and then a standalone First Grade team led to heavy losses in all of their opening four games.

Yanco-Wamoon Secretary Lisa Schmetzer said that the decision was a very tough one to make, but was crucial for ensuring the safety and welfare of the club’s players.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow, but for the safety and duty of care [for] our players, we could see no other way forward,” she said.

“Hopefully in 2025 we can rebuild and come back in as Yanco-Wamoon has done for the last 53 years.”

Schmetzer believes that the move to Reserve Grade will be huge for the side’s confidence, which has suffered after successive large defeats, and will allow the squad to gain experience throughout the remainder of the year.

“When we only have four regular first graders on the team It does make it fairly difficult to compete against First Grade [teams], so hopefully we can be much more competitive in Reserves and the boys will then feel much better about themselves and their confidence will build,” she said.

“Who knows, next year the Reserve Graders might be pushing into First Grade, but this year that is not the case.

“We have quite a few young boys who are just coming up from 18’s, so [now] they will be able to get a better start in Reserve Grade.”

Senior Co-Coach Matt Goodwill said that making the call was tough given the history and tradition of the club, which won a Riverina Division record five consecutive titles from 1992 to 1996, but said that ultimately it was all about player welfare.

“It relieves the pressure [on] our Reserve Grade players,” he said.

“It must [have been] daunting, you sign up, you register and then you come to training as a Reserve Grade player, the standard is a lot different, being blooded in First Grade is totally different to being blooded in Reserve Grade.

“In Reserve Grade, I feel like there’s not as much pressure. 

“It’s relieved all the pressure from our squad, and we can just go out there and play football, and enjoy our football rather than having to worry about the scoreline, [we can] just try and compete.”

The Hawks have copped four heavy defeats to start the year, with three 60-0 mercy rule losses to open their campaign before they registered their first points in a 66-10 loss to defending premiers Leeton in their last start, for a combined 246-10 scoreline across the season so far.

Sources tell Battlers For Bush Footy that the club’s squad totals just 21 points under the Player Points Index, which is just over a fifth of the cap of 100 points in First Grade, and still well under half of the Reserve Grade cap of 50.

The most recent other club to have played a season in Reserve Grade only in Group 20 was the Hay Magpies in 2021, who were controversially ruled out of the finals after finishing third, before being reinstated prior to that season ending prematurely due to the COVID-19 wave in New South Wales.

It is not uncommon though, with many clubs having done so in the past in other groups, including Cowra last season in the Group 10/11 competition, Casino in the Northern Rivers League, and Junee, who famously won the Group 9 Reserve Grade Premiership in 2022 during a rebuilding stint, a success that contributed greatly to that club’s return to First Grade.

All Group 20 clubs have been notified of the change and Sunday’s match against Darlington Point-Coleambally will be the first under the change.