Tallon Smith

The Griffith Black and Whites have maintained touch with the Group 20 top five after a 32-12 win over a spirited West Wyalong outfit on Sunday.

Down to 11 men at various points in the match due to a lack of numbers, the Mallee Men dug deep to keep themselves in the game for the majority of the contest before the Griffith side powerd away late for a much-needed victory.

Black and Whites coach Kodie Charles said that the match was almost billed as a do-or-die for the side, which is sitting in sixth place.

“Most definitely we needed those two points,” he said.

“I told my boys if we don’t get these two points over in West Wyalong you could probably more or less kiss our top five [hopes] goodbye.”

Despite their numbers crisis again affecting their performance, Charles said that the Mallee Men performed admirably to give his side a real challenge for the majority of the encounter.

“Even though they only has 12 and they went down to 11, and in the second half they [got] back to 12 men, a couple of blokes rocked up, I tell you what, they still put up a fight,” he said.

“To get the win over there, it’s always a hard place to go and win no matter how many players they’ve got.”

The Black and Whites opened the scoring early, before the match entered a tough grind for the remainder of the first half, with the Griffith team only kicking clear towards the end of the game.

Tali Talioesila and Jeremaia Tuinaceva each crossed for doubles as they ran in six tries to two in the finish for a comfortable victory.

With the West Wyalong side struggling so far this season, Charles said that complacency was a bit of an issue for his side, before they returned to the basics and fought off a challenge from their opponents.

“We scored the first try, and then after that we sort of went a bit stale,” he said.

“We tried to do too much instead of just completing and grinding away, we went away from what we were trying to do.

“If we just kicked to corners and tried to turn them around, we wanted to throw the ball around too much and it put us on the back foot a bit.”

“The boys thought they’d go out there and run all over them, but being West Wyalong at West Wyalong, they dug deep and they put a bit of pressure on us a bit.

“We scored a couple of tries toward the end of the first half, and then the second half was a bit of a nail biter, they started coming back, and then we started putting things together [that] we’ve been training for and we were a better side for it.”

AROUND THE GROUNDS

Moving to other games, and just up the road at Lake Cargelligo, the Waratahs extended their unbeaten run to seven games with a 32-20 win over the Tullibigeal-Lakes United Sharks.

In a match that was close for the majority, the Waratahs held a 26-20 lead late, before running in a final try to improve the margin and bank another two points.

Celebrating coach Shan Bradbrook’s 100th game, the Leeton Greenies made sure the milestone was marked successfully with a 22-14 win over the Hay Magpies at the Leeton No.1 Oval.

Bradbrook himself crossed for one of Leeton’s four tries in the match, with centre James Tafiti’s goal kicking helping to push out the margin to eight points.

Finally, the DPC Roosters also chalked up a much needed win with a 28-20 win over this season’s surprise packets in Yanco-Wamoon.

Respective coaches Guy Thompson and Jim Dabea each scored two tries in an effort to inspire their troops, but it was the Roosters who emerged victorious, scoring five tries to four.

MAGIC ROUND CANCELLED

Group 20 Rugby League has made the call to postpone its Magic Round until 2026 after concerns were raised by clubs over the event’s short lead time.

The event, initially announced two weeks ago, will now take place in round one of the 2026 season, with the group set to schedule representative fixtures in addition to the Magic Round concept.

The all-day rugby league extravaganza was previously set to hit Yenda’s Wade Park on June 21.

Group 20 President Adam Brill said that the decision will allow the competition’s administrators more time to plan an enhanced event next season.

“[We’re] going to work on a full weekend off footy and try to get some representative footy here as well,” he told The Area News.

“Have the Magic Round on the Saturday of round one and then have some rep footy on the Sunday.”

The concept, based upon the NRL version, was set to see Black and Whites face Waratahs, Yanco-Wamoon take on TLU Sharks, DPC Roosters square off with Hay, and Yenda tackle Leeton in four back-to-back matches.

Last-start winners West Wyalong were set to be the unlucky side with the bye before the event’s cancellation.

Unlike many of the other competitions that have held similar events, Group 20 were looking to involve all grades in the match day.