Cover Photo: Krak’d Lens

Tallon Smith

A fairytale home grand final win or a premiership drought breaking are the two storylines on offer as the Forbes Magpies prepare to welcome the Dubbo Macquarie Raiders to Spooner Oval for the Peter McDonald Premiership grand final tomorrow.

Both sides defeated the past two premiers of the competition in consecutive finals fixtures to reach the decider, with the Magpies getting the better of Dubbo CYMS in the qualifying final  before downing minor premiers Mudgee in the preliminary final, while the Raiders did the same in reverse, downing the Dragons followed by the Fishies.

For Forbes, the match shapes as the centrepiece of a huge grand final weekend, with all four of the club’s senior sides contesting Western Premiership grand finals, while it also has teams in four of the five Lachlan District Junior Rugby League grand finals played today (Saturday).

First grade coach Cameron Greenhalgh said grand final fever has well and truly taken over Forbes as the community celebrates one of the biggest weekends in the town’s 107-year rugby league history.

“It’s awesome, the shopfronts are getting streamers, balloons, everything, I think Forbes sold out of black and white stuff on Monday morning at 10 o’clock,” he said.

“We’ve got four junior league competitive sides in the grand final, all Forbes Magpies sides, that’s another reason everyone’s really upbeat at the moment, it’s good for Forbes.

“Forbes hasn’t had a grand final for 25 years, so [it’s] good to be playing at home and obviously great to be in the grand final.”

The Magpies reached the decider by defeating Mudgee 38-28, after becoming the first team to beat the Dragons a month earlier in the penultimate round of the regular season.

Greenhalgh was pleased to outlast what he described as “a quality team and a very tough side” in the postseason contest.

“I think Mudgee have got some good old hard heads in there that could probably push us a little bit, and stay with our forward pack, and they [did] that, it was a bit of a battle, to and fro sort of game, obviously went down to the wire,” he said.

“Mudgee certainly turned up to play their best footy, and they did, but our home crowd and the will to win got us over the line in the end.”

With Forbes’ attention now turning to its third grand final in the five years since the PMP was inaugurated in 2022, the next task is finding a way to stop the Raiders’ charge. 

Greenhalgh said he has been watching the Raiders’ rise in 2026 under coaching duo of Matt Lane and Anthony Egan-Smith, and was not surprised to be playing them in the decider.

“Macquarie, I’ve rated them all year, they’ve got two new experienced coaches come to the club, so they’ve changed their ways and how they go about things, been a little bit harder on players involved in the club, and you can see that in their football,” he said.

“They’re playing with a lot of confidence, they’ve got some attacking weapons in there that can score points from anywhere, and they’ll keep trying to score points, no matter what, even if they’re behind on the scoreboard, so that’s what makes them so dangerous.

“Shutting them down defensively has got to be the key to start with, and making sure we’re really good in that area, because we’ve got points in us as well, but defence is our key to winning games of footy, being in their face and being very physical.

“We get that right, and our attack plays off the back of that, so that’s our plan, but Dubbo Macquarie are a very dangerous team, and they showed that on the weekend, by going into extra time and winning with a couple of seconds to go.”

Raiders’ return 14 years in the making

For Macquarie, Sunday’s decider marks a return to the big dance for the first time since their 2012 Group 11 triumph, as well as the club’s first PMP decider since the combined competition with Group 10 began in 2022.

The Raiders needed extra time in their preliminary final against Dubbo CYMS after the sides were locked at 16-all at full time, with the Fishies taking an 18-16 lead in the overtime period, only for Wyndham Peachey to emerge with the ball from a contest and race away to put his team into the grand final.

Dubbo Macquarie president Jarryd Meredith said reaching the final match of the season is a big achievement for the club.

“It’s massive for the club, it’s been a long time coming, 14 years since our last grand final, and that one we were fortunate enough to win,” he said.

“Since then, we’ve had a fair few lows, and some highs as well along the way, but it’s certainly been a long time coming, and it’s just a wonderful achievement for the club and for the boys.

“We’re just very excited as a whole and looking forward to [Sunday].”

As for the preliminary final win over the arch-rival Fishies, there were scenes of jubilation and joy as Peachey ran in to score in front of a packed crowd of Raiders supporters.

Reflecting on the remarkable finish, Meredith said the match was everything local rugby league supporters could have asked for, living up to the hype of a cross-town grand final qualifier.

“I don’t think anyone could have scripted it any better to be honest,” he said.

“It was an epic local derby, everything I guess what the crowd would love to see during the build up of that week, and both teams certainly didn’t disappoint at all.

“To see Wyndham cross over for that winning try, it was just unbelievable scenes.

“There was a couple of times in the match where I internally said to myself ‘we’ve had a great year, but it’s obviously just not going to be our day today’.

“Just the fight in the boys to put themselves in a position to win it, and for Wyndham to do something special like that, it was unbelievable and certainly got a reaction from the crowd.”

Tomorrow’s decider kicks off at 3:30pm.