Bryson Luff

At the end of their Christie and Hood Castlereagh League match played at Coonamble between the hometown Bears and the visiting Narromine Jets the two teams were inseparable, well at least on the scoreboard that was the case.

The Jets had largely enjoyed having the lead throughout most of the game, the score being 24 to 10 in their favour at half time and 32 to 16 at one stage during the second stanza.

However, the never say die attitude of the Grizzlies again came to the fore and they scored the final 16 points in the game to see the two teams shaking hands with the scoreboard reading 32-all.

After last week’s unbelievable finish at Gulgong, when the Bull Terriers came from behind to register an incredible win over the Dunedoo Swans, the home side supporters once again had to endure a very tight finish to the game, this time being against the Cobar Roosters.

Two tries to the Terrier’s front rower Blake Gorrie in the opening 16 minutes of the game followed soon after with another to their centre Toby O’Leary saw the home side looking good at 14 points to nil, but two Rooster tries, one scored by their lock Tadgh McMullen just before the half time break, and another by his lock and brother Oisin just after the resumption of play had the Roosters well and truly back in the game, trailing by just two points, 14 to 12.

The Terriers responded and were able to stretch the scoreboard out to what looked to be a comfortable 26 to 12 advantage with the clock ticking down.
However, two converted tries to the Roosters in the final five minutes gave the Terrier players and their supporters some cause for concern, and the sounding of the fulltime hooter bought them much relief after yet another tense finish at Billy Dunn Oval.

There were no less than 16 tries scored at Baradine in their local derby clash against the Coonabarabran Unicorns. Unfortunately for the Magpies they could only claim five of them in what was a free-flowing affair, the final score being 56 to 28 with the Unicorns centre Brad Fuller crossing the stripe four times as well as landing 4 goals for a personal tally of 24 points.

At Dunedoo the Swans became another statistic for Coolah Kangaroos being well beaten 46 to 4 and they will have their work cut out for them this Saturday when they travel out to take on the Roosters at Cobar.

The Swans were going quite nicely in the competition until mid-way through the second half of their game against Gulgong in round 4 and since then they have conceded some 80 points and scored just four.

The Roosters are always hard at home and unless the Swans address their defensive deficiencies in a hurry it could well be a long trip home for the green and whites.

The Boronia Cup is on the line at Coolah when the Kangaroos will be defending the silverware for the seventh time, on this occasion against the Baradine Magpies.

The Jessica Skinner Challenge Cup will also be played for this Saturday when the Narromine Jets host Gulgong with the first-grade game shaping as the match of the round.

The Coonamble Bears will be hoping that their good recent form continues when they travel down to Warren to take on the Bulldogs, with the home side hoping to make a statement in front of their supporters after what has been a tough comeback to the Castlereagh League competition so far this year.

Coonabarabran and Gilgandra will play in league tag at Coonabarabran on Friday night.