Bryson Luff
The 2026 Christie and Hood Castlereagh League grands finals will be staged at Cobar’s Tom Knight Memorial Oval this Saturday and what a day it promises to be!
The first of three games, the Youth League fixture between the Coonabarabran Unicorns and the Cobar Roosters, will kick off proceedings at 11.00am.
The trip to Cobar should not hold too many concerns for the Unicorns side as they came away with a big 40-6 win at the same ground just a couple of weeks ago when the two sides met in the major semi final.
However, they would be ill advised to think that the result is a forgone conclusion as the Roosters will be playing in front of a large and vocal home crowd which will undoubtedly do their chances of upsetting the Unicorns no harm at all.
The League Tag grand final will follow the youth league presentations and this shapes up as a superb contest between two quality sides with the thus far undefeated minor premiers, the Dunedoo Swannettes up against last year’s premiers, the Coolah Flyers.
So far this season the Swannettes have prevailed winning 26-14 at Coolah in round 5 of the competition and then coming away with a 24-12 win in the major semi played at Cobar two weeks ago, in a match where the Swannettes shot out to a big early lead then were called on to defend that lead as the Flyers gained momentum.
To add spice to the contest the game is a replay of last year’s grand final with the result in that match seeing the Flyers win 18-16.
A very fast and open contest between the two evenly matched sides is expected.
That game will set the scene for a blockbuster first grade battle between the Cobar Roosters and the Coolah Kangaroos.
Except for one loss the Roosters have swept all before them this year.
However, that one and only loss was to the Kangaroos in their round 10 game played at Coolah, the score being 18-10.
Earlier in the year, in round two, the Roosters were too strong at Tom Knight Oval and won 34-12.
Whilst Cobar has been travelling along quite nicely throughout the season Coolah did have had, by their lofty standards of the previous two years, a slow start, but their recent performances suggest that they have timed their run to the grand final rather well.
They are coming into the game after a number of tough semi final battles whilst the grand final will be only the second game for the Roosters in four weeks.
Being back-to-back premiers grand final experience will not be an issue for the Roos but many members of the Cobar side will still have the lingering memory of their 2024 grand final loss to Coolah fresh in their minds and no doubt they will be doing their utmost to prevent that happening again this Saturday.
A huge crowd is expected to pack into Tom Knight Memorial Oval to watch all the action.
Gates will open at 9.00am.
The 11.00am kick off for the first game is to allow for any extra time that may be needed in either the youth league or league tag games, plus the after-match presentations in both
those grades.
The first-grade game will not kick off before 2.00pm
