Tallon Smith
Senior rugby league is set to return to the Canola Way in 2027 after the Coolamon Raiders held a successful AGM earlier this month.
The town, which has a long rugby league history tracing back to 1919, last entered a team in the region’s Kennedy Shield competition in the 1990s, but has a thriving junior club in the Group 9 competition formed in 2023.
Ross Walters, who was elected the club’s new president, told Battlers For Bush Footy that while it was easier to fill some executive roles than others, the club has a committee in place.
“I think there was 11 or 12 people at the meeting, we had a prospective captain-coach and a couple of players,” he said.
“President was easily filled, because I was happy to do it.
“Secretary was a sticking point, which I feel it probably is in a lot of clubs, and then one of the boys rang his mother-in-law and she said ‘I’m more than happy to do it’, so in absence we got a secretary.
“Another young fella Blake [Hilton] took on being treasurer, all [those] jobs are very important.”
Next on the agenda for the club is finding a competition to play in, with the obvious geographical choice of Group 9 being too high of a standard for the Raiders.
While the club has not applied to enter any competition at this stage, Walters said there has been plenty of discussion on potential options, including the Western Riverina’s Proten Community Cup and the Goulburn Murray Premiership in the Border and North East Victoria region.
“We will have another meeting, and we need to determine in what direction we think we might head as a club, whether it be the Proten, maybe another pub comp,” he said.
“There was a bit of talk thrown around the table the other night about Goulburn Murray.
“Our furthest trip would only be three and a half hours, which is pretty attractive, and all down into Victoria more so than New South Wales.”
However, Walters also revealed however that the formation of a completely new competition is not completely out of the question, with the potential for the club’s previous competition to return in some format.
“There is a little bit of talk around Group 9 that the Kennedy Shield might get up again, so that would be very nice,” he said.
With previous experience including a tenure as president of Jindabyne’s Snowy River Bears, Walters brings with him experience in building a club that will be invaluable to the Raiders club.
When asked about what he believes the club will offer the Coolamon community, the new president said that having both codes in addition to the club’s strong Australian rules club and current Riverina Football League leaders Coolamon Rovers will create a more diverse sporting landscape and choice for locals.
“It’s a pretty strong AFL town, and there is a lot of blokes that are maybe not quite up to AFL, it is a pretty fast moving game, and rugby league can be too, but if we are playing a bit of bush footy, I feel like we might entice a few fellas across to try something a little different,” he said.
“The previous Raiders in talking to some of the older generation, they were pretty successful in that Kennedy Shield back in the day.”
After its formation in 1919, Coolamon competed in a number of early Riverina competitions for trophies including Blake Cup and O’Donnell Gold Cup, before joining Group 13 around 1940, which at the time was the Wagga district competition and contained clubs such as Wagga Magpies, Wagga Kangaroos and Wagga Waratahs, as well as Tumut and Gundagai.
During this era, the club also competed against a number of other current Group 9 and 20 clubs in challenge matches, such as Gundagai, Temora and Narrandera, as well as defunct clubs including Ardlethan, Ariah Park, Illabo and Matong.
The club then re-formed in the 1980s and competed in the Kennedy Shield competition.
The town then had no rugby league activity until 2023, when former Dunedoo, Dubbo CYMS and Southcity playmaker Thomas Besgrove formed a junior club, later being recognised as 2025 Peter “Parra” Montgomery Battler of the Year for his efforts.
