By Sammy Turnbull

The Under 13s, Under 19s and Opens divisions of the Castlereagh Cougars have secured a place in the semi-finals of the 2022 Women's Rugby League (WRL) season and will head to Grenfell this weekend to battle it out for a spot in the grand final.

Womens Rugby League’s emerging talent was on display at Gulargambone on Saturday 12 March when the Castlereagh Cougars’ three younger squads took on the Bathurst Platypi ahead of next week’s Semi Finals.

Around 200 players across five grades plus their supporters and spectators flocked to the Gular Oval showing just how strong the future is for the WRL in the west.

Under 13s

The Under 13s saw a top of the tables clash with the winner securing the top spot so both teams went in hard and neither wanted to lose. 

The first half saw the Platypi girls show some great attacking and ball running to score the first couple of tries.

This didn’t deter the Castlereagh girls who hit back with a couple of tries of their own through some great runs from forwards Marlea Moss and Ava Stanton. 

The game continued back and forth with Platypi scoring two more tries to Castlereagh’s one coming from Mokoia Birtles out of dummy half. Half time saw Platypi in the lead 20-12. 

The second half saw much of the same from both teams, with a few errors for both.

Early in the half Platypi scored a quick try off their fullback, followed by another try to their five-eight to secure 8 more points.

The Castlereagh girls continued to fight back coming close on multiple occasions but unlucky across the line. 

At the final hooter Panorama Platypi finished their season undefeated, beating the Castlereagh girls 20-12. 

A big congratulations to the our under 13s team who for most had never played rugby league before going into their semi final. 

Points for the game went to; 3 Tierrah Nicholls, 2 Talloulah Moore, 1 Mokoia Birtles and Players player was shared by Keisha Thompson and Mokoia Birtles.

ABOVE: A Castlereagh Cougar zeroes in on a gap in the Bathurst Platypi's defensive line.

Under 15s

In the under 15s match both teams were fighting it out for fourth to secure that semi-final spot. 

The Castlereagh girls needed a win but the determined Platypi weren’t going to give up easily. 

Castlereagh were strong through the middle with good runs from Adda Craig, Temia Taylor and Sharna Forgione, leading to two strong tries from Adda Craig.

Platypi were determined to stay in the game and worked hard to gain good field position and snared a try before half time, going into the break 8-6. 

The second half saw both teams come out hard to secure that win. With the weather getting warm both teams found it hard to maintain the pace and ferociousness of the first half forcing many errors from both sides.  

Platypi continued to push hard scoring three tries in the half and keeping Castlereagh scoreless. 

Both teams played good hard footy with Platypi defeating Castlereagh 20-12 securing their semi-final spot and ending the Castlereagh girls season. 

Points for this game went to; 3- Adda Craig, 2- Ella Hanney, 1- Natalie Gallen with players player also going to Adda Craig.

Under 17s

The under 17s although not in semi final contention were searching for that first win for the season. 

Platypi came to Gular a bit short on players reducing the game to 9 a side. 

After gelling well over the last few weeks the Castlereagh girls were keen for a win together, but got off to a slow start letting in four tries to their two. 

The second half saw a very different team come back onto the field. 

Strong leading runs through the middle by Missy, Hallie Hogden and Amy Verrall saw them gain great field position leading to multiple tries to Missy, Hallie, Olivia and Jardi.

Platypi fought back through a try of their own but it wasn’t enough to keep out the Castlereagh girls, who again were strong through the middle with more tries to Sarah Morley and Temia Taylor.

The girls were just as good out wide with Jardi Naden and Olivia Milson scoring a hat trick each through some great edge running. 

The Castlereagh girls defeated Platypi 54-26 finishing their season off with a great hard fought win. 

Points for the game went to; 3- Hallie Hogden, 2- Sarah Morley, 1- Missy K and players player went to Olivia Milsom.

ABOVE: A strong group of Castlereagh girls work to prevent a Platypi player from getting away with the ball.

Under 19s

The under 19s we’re out looking to secure their semi final spot with Platypi coming in short players on the day they too reduced to 9 a-side in what was warming up to be a hot afternoon. 

This game was short lived however with Platypi having to forfeit at halftime due to injury and lack of players with the score finishing at 46-0. 

The game nevertheless saw strong performances form Shakaye Walker and Ashanti Pennell displaying classy ball skills and attacking prowess executing plays, scoring multiple tries each and setting up many more. 

This came off great defence from tackle machines Amarlee Vallette and Maddy Masman putting in huge workloads. The always reliable Hannah Carroll had some strong ball carries and made some dynamo tackles coming away with two tries in the game. 

Other strong performances come Jannali Dwyer and Missy who was strong backing up from 17s tackling and ball running when she was on the field. 

Points for the game went to; 3- Hannah Carroll, 2- Amarlee Vallette, 1- Ashanti Pennell and players player going to Hannah Carroll.

ABOVE: Opens Cougar Sammy Turnbull prepares to offload the ball to one of her teammates.

Opens

The last game of the day saw the opens head out against the top placed team who were looking to secure minor premiers and the Castlereagh girls looking to secure a semi final spot for the first time in many years.

The game started out fast paced with Platypi scoring first through some hard running forwards. 

Castlereagh was quick to hit back gaining some good field position putting Tori Canham close enough to put a short kick through to chase and score herself, with the score 6-4. 

The game continued to be back and forth with some big hits coming from both teams. 

Again the Castlereagh girls were not ready to give up although feeling the heat. 

They were lucky to score through some good ball play and quick thinking from Channy Burgess to find the line, taking the score to 8-6 in favour of Castlereagh. 

Platypi however were not giving up that easy and scored again taking back the lead with the score 10-8. 

With less than minutes to go before half-time, a great kick- off from Tori Canham saw a Platypi error allowing young gun Hannah Carroll to recover the ball and run 10 metres taking multiple Platypi defenders with her.

Hannah offloaded to speedster winger Kylie Campbell who ran in for a much needed try on the halftime hooter boosting the confidence of the Castlereagh girls to lead at the break 12-10. 

Second half saw strong performances from Tori Canham, Emily Ryan, Channy Burgess, Sammy Turnbull, plus Maddy Masman and Shakaye Walker who were both backing up from under 19s.

ABOVE: It was going to take more than one member of the Platypi's defence line to stop Castlereagh's Emily Ryan once she had the ball.

The second half began a bit slower for the Castlereagh girls with Platypi proving why they are on top of the ladder with some good ball movement finding an overlap out wide to score the first try. 

The game continued to be a good one with some great football on display from both teams.

Strong ball carries from Courtney Penfold and Nikeata McMaster both backing up from 19s as well as Maddie Bretag and Gemma Williams helped the team get good field position. 

Castlereagh scored next through some good ball movement skills from Shakaye Walker to put Emily Ryan down the edge running a good 30 metres to score.

Castlereagh continued to dominate through the middle with good plays from Sammy Turnbull and ever reliable hooker Maddy Masman who linked up with Tori Canham to score her second try of the day.

This flow continued off the kick off and down field where a strong ball run from Sammy Turnbull found a hole and beat multiple defenders to score a great try under the post securing Castlereagh’s win with the final score being 32-20. 

Points for the game went to; 3- Tori Canham, 2- Emily Ryan, 1- Channy Burgess and Players Player was Sammy Turnbull.

The coming week will see our under 13s, 19s and opens all head to Grenfell to try and secure a grand final spot.