Cover Photo: Peter Sherwood Photography

Bryson Luff

The Cobar Roosters thwarted the Coolah Kangaroos attempt at making it three Castlereagh
premierships in a row when they recorded a solid 22-4 victory in front of a very large and vocal crowd.

Played on their home turf, the Tom Knight Memorial Oval, the Chooks were never headed in a contest that was punctuated by a number of flare ups that saw four players, three from Coolah and one from Cobar dispatched to the sin bin.

The physicality of the game certainly did little to induce free flowing football but that is not to say that the game did not have its moments of good ball movement, and both teams were called upon to defend doggedly at times throughout the encounter.

The tone for the match was set in the third minute when the first flash point in the game occurred, and it was on from that point onwards.

The Roosters declined a penalty kick at goal not long after and, as is often the case, they coughed the ball up in the first tackle of the ensuing set.

However, they did still manage to be the first team to generate any scoreboard action when their hooker, Thomas Plater was able to dart over from dummy half in the 13th minute for a try which he then converted for six points to nil lead.

From that point the Roosters began to dominate the game territorially and it was Plater again who scored from dummy half in the 29th minute, after he spotted a gap in the Coolah line, his cause being aided by the fact that a Coolah player was contemplating the paint work in the dressing shed having been sinbinned just prior.

The ‘Roos did rally towards the end of the first half, but it was to no avail as the Cobar defence stood solid and at half time, they trooped off with a 10-0 lead.

The resumption of play again saw the Roosters called on to defend their line and again they held firm and after ten minutes of play they were finally able to get down the other end of the field where some good ball movement resulted in their centre Tristan Everett going over and the home side was looking good holding a 14-point advantage.

It was becoming apparent that the Kangaroos needed to score next if they were to be any chance of winning the game and they become more desperate in attack, with a neat grubber kick from Jake Hawkins being grounded by Jacob Medd finally getting them on the board for an unconverted try.

The Roosters responded not long after via a converted try to Oisin McMullen and with 16 minutes remaining in the game the scoreboard indicated that a Cobar victory was most likely when it read 20 points to 4.

A further penalty goal increased their lead by two and then it was a matter of seeing the game out to claim the premiership.

With five minutes to go two Coolah players and one Cobar were given an early mark by referee Simon Hartas as once again the game flared up but there was to be no further movement on the scoreboard and the Roosters deservedly took the game and claimed the premiership 22-4 much to the delight of the vast number of red, white and blue supporters who had packed into the ground.

Earlier in the day those same supporters had been somewhat disappointed when their youth league side suffered a very narrow 16-14 loss to the Coonabarabran Unicorns with the game being decided by a penalty goal that was kicked after the fulltime siren had sounded.

The young Roosters had come back from being down 14-0 at half time to tie the game up at 14-all with six minutes remaining, and they will no doubt be now rueing the fact that they opted to tap the ball instead of taking a shot at penalty goal when there was only three minutes to go.

The league tag game between the Dunedoo Swannettes and the Coolah Flyers was a replay of last year’s premiership decider but this time round it was to be the Swannettes that held the premiership shield aloft after they registered a 16-6 win after the score board read 8-6 in their favour at half time.

Even though there were only three tries scored in the match it was nonetheless a free- flowing affair with both sides having to come up with some desperate defence to halt the opposition’s brilliant attacking raids.

The win meant that the Swannettes went through the 2026 season undefeated.

The Castlereagh League player of the year awards were announced after the respective grand finals with the Youth League honours being shared between Cobar’s Jaxon Burke and Gilgandra’s Sailor Ryan.

It should be noted that Ryan was named as the Group 14 Junior Rugby League’s under 16 player of the year the week before.

The League Tag player of the year award went to Coolah’s Brooklyn Blackadder who quite remarkably received votes in every competition game throughout the season.

Cobar’s Thomas Plater and DJ Smith from Gilgandra were announced as co-winners of the first grade player of the year award after they tied in the voting.

COBAR 22 (Thomas Plater 2, Tristan Everett, Oisin McMullen tries, Plater 3 goals) DEFEATED COOLAH 4 (Jacob Medd try). Player of the Grand Final: Oisin McMullen (Cobar)