Cover Photo: Warren Bulldogs RLFC Facebook Group

By Tallon Smith

After seven years in the rugby league wilderness, the Warren Bulldogs have begun preparations for a potential return to the Castlereagh Rugby League competition in 2025.

The club, which dominated the competition at the start of last decade, winning two premierships in 2010 and 2012 from three consecutive Grand Final appearances, folded after the 2018 season.

Castlereagh League Secretary and Publicity Officer Bryson Luff said that although it would come down to a vote of the ten member clubs, the Bulldogs would most likely be accepted if they were to have the numbers required to field sides.

“Well, it’s obviously up to the clubs whether or not they would accept a back, but we haven’t really knocked anyone back in the past,” he said. 

“But having said that, we’d have to look at what they can bring to the group in terms of what terms they’d bring to it and so on.

“Personally I think that they would be welcome. 

“They’ve played here before, they’ve been a good club.“

Luff said the only potential problem which could arise is having too many clubs for the draw, which has been a criticism levelled by some at the neighbouring Woodbridge Cup competition.

“The problem we face of course is that we all have too many clubs and that just becomes a bit difficult in terms of getting through the draw but that’s a good problem to have.

In an area where rugby union has tended to hold sway in recent times with the Warren Pumas competing in the Western Plains Rugby Union competition and the Trangie Tigers returning to the Oilsplus Cup competition, rugby league has declined in recent years, with both towns losing their respective league sides.

When asked about the prospect of the two towns teaming up to field a joint rugby league side as has been suggested for the sake of long-term sustainability, Luff said it was up to the Bulldogs if they wanted to work with the rugby league community in Trangie.

“[It] would be entirely up to those two towns whether or not they want to come together, I think there has been talk about that in the past but it’s never eventuated,“ he said.

Warren Bulldogs Vice-President Phil Fuller said that the majority of the town’s 1800-odd residents are excited at the prospect of their rugby league team returning next season following a successful first meeting.

“It would be good to see, everyone’s keen to have a local side running around again,” he said.

“We got a very big turn out [at] the first meeting so it was good to see.”

As for the club’s approach to their return, Fuller said it will be a return of the Warren Bulldogs club rather than a partnership with another team, with the team looking at a First Grade side and potentially a League Tag team to start off with.

“We’ll only have first grade, that’s the only squad we have, we’ve got a fair few young fellas who have had to play away since we haven’t had a side,” he said.

“Everyone’s welcome, [we want] a decent enough squad so we can move forward this year and beyond.

As for the Bulldogs’ return adding to the already promising growth of the Castlereagh League, which now features 11 clubs and in recent years has regained its Reserve Grade competition, Fuller said it’s a case of ‘the more the merrier’.

“The more teams the better off we are I think, it was only a reasonably small competition when we recently played,” he said.

More information regarding the Bulldogs’ return will be available when their new social media pages are up and running, which according to Fuller will be in the near future.

Prior to playing in the Group 14/Castlereagh competition, the Bulldogs competed in Group 15 (now known as the Barwon Darling Cup), where they won the 1977 Premiership.