League competition, the Cobar Roosters First Grade side had to take the long road to get to
the grand final, but they’ve showed their fighting spirit and won their way into the ‘Big
Dance’ this Saturday where they will take on the Gilgandra Panthers for the 2022
Premiership. It’s the Roosters fifth season in the Castlereagh competition and a win on
Saturday will go some way to making amends for not winning last year’s premiership which
was cancelled due to COVID restrictions. Good luck Roosters! Cobar is behind you!
The Cobar Roosters will meet the Gil-gandra Panthers in the Christie & Hood Castlereagh Rugby League First Grade grand final this Saturday after a sensational 32-18 win over the Narromine Jets on Sat-urday in Narromine.
The Roosters spoiled the Narromine club’s party who were looking to have a trifecta of teams in this week’s grand finals after their League Tag and Reserve Grade teams had won their games prior to the First Grade match.
The scores were locked up at 12-all at half time in First Grade after the Roosters and the Jets had scored two tries each, all of them from close range which was indicative of how the game was played in the opening stanza.
The second half saw a bit more ball move-ment and, in that area, it was the Roosters that proved to be superior, particularly in the latter stages of the game with their hard running full-back Ash Davies grabbing a double in the Roosters’ 32-18 victory.
Cobar now enters their first Castlereagh League First Grade grand final and, while they will be short on grand final experience, the same cannot be said about their opponents on Saturday, the Gilgandra Panthers.
Gilgandra will be hosting their sixth consec-utive grand final and, although not all of their players have played in one or more of those five preceding grand finals, a lot have and this could well have an influence on the final result.
In their meetings so far this year the Roosters scored a big 34-14 win at Cobar in the opening round while the Panthers just got home 28-26 in Gilgandra in Round 11.
A gauge of their more recent form shows that in the past weeks both teams have had to defeat the Narromine Jets at Narromine to gain entry into the grand final—the Panthers winning the major semi 32-28 and the Roosters taking the preliminary final 32-18.
The Cobar Roosters First Grade side has plenty to play for in this Saturday’s big game.
Not only will they be looking to gain their first Castlereagh premiership since they joined the competition in 2018, they will also be hop-ing to make amends for missing out on hoist-ing the trophy last year when the season was cut short by COVID.
The team will also be hoping to send off team stalwart David Watson with a bang!
Watson has been a Cobar Rooster since a junior and has recently left town (but has been travelling each weekend to finish out the season with Cobar).
The Roosters will be also hoping they can celebrate a victory for one of their long term players, Ben Simon, who made a return late this season after suffering a potentially career-ending injury last season.
A grand final win would be a fitting reward for Watson, Simon and other members of their long term core group of players including Tim Hillam, Jed Noonan and Tristan Everett (and later Marty Turton) who have all played to-gether since their Group 11 days.
For Roosters veteran, Jimmy Neyland, who’s come out of retirement on numerous occasions, a win means he can now “officially” retire.
A Roosters victory will also be a nice present for Cobar Club president Chris Deighton who fought hard to get the Roosters accepted into the Castlereagh League. (It was reportedly his impassioned speech at the Group’s AGM that swayed the other clubs who were concerned at the travel distances, to accept Cobar into the league.) The 2022 First Grade team does have some experienced grand final Roosters in their ranks with Ash Davies, Ben Griffiths, Ted Smith and Zane Taylor having all played a part in the Roosters’ 2020 Castlereagh Youth League grand final win.
A win will also please the club’s league of dedicated fans, many of whom have been at every game to support them
