Big crowds were on hand to witness the historic return of the Mendooran Tigers to the Rugby League field at Binnaway last Saturday 5 July in Round Nine of the Christie and Hood Castlereagh League competition.

It was the same just up the road at Coonabarabran for the huge top-of-the-table clash between the Unicorns and the Coolah Kangaroos.

The importance of the Tigers’ reformation to the Mendooran community should not be understated and as Mendooran’s coach Scott Murray pointed out after the game the Bombshell supporters were greatly outnumbered by Tigers fans and his team didn’t let them down.

After what he described as “a nervous and jittery start to the game” the Tigers had established a 14-0 lead at the break and looked set to go on with it, but they were not to bother the scoreboard attendant in the second stanza as the Bombshells came out firing and with Mendooran seeing very limited possession.

With just a few minutes to go it was anyone’s game at 14-10.

That was to be the final score after some very nervous final minutes for supporters of both sides.

Indeed, as Murray stated it was on the back of a great defensive effort in that second half that the community of Mendooran were able to celebrate their first football win in 40 years!

Unicorns v Kangaroos

Whilst the game at The Crater was winding up the highly anticipated table-topping first grade clash between the Coonabarabran Unicorns and the Coolah Kangaroos was just getting underway.

This game had a finals intensity about it and a huge crowd to match.

The first half was an intense back-and-forth battle between the two sides.

The scores locked up at 4-4 before Coolah edged out to a 12-4 lead at the break when hardworking front-rower Casey Burgess cleaned up with a try, much to the dismay of the home crowd, after a bomb was left unattended by the Unicorns with just two minutes remaining until half-time.

Urged on by large contingent of Coona Old Boys as they took to the field for the resumption of play, the Unicorns seemed to go up a gear whilst the Kangaroos had handling issues, with two errors leading to tries to Coonabarabran – one of which was converted.

Eight minutes into the second half the scoreboard read 14-12 in favour of the blue and gold.

With the Unicorns applying great pressure the Kangaroos were pinned down in their own half, and when Coonabarabran centre Brad Fuller put through an excellent grubber down the right flank which was pursued at pace by winger Sonny Bill Walker, it was looking as if Coolah might experience their first loss for the year with the home side well and truly on top and the scoreboard reading 18-12.

It wasn’t until the 27th minute of the second half that Coolah battled their way over the halfway line and a great individual effort by Chanse Burgess which saw him shrugging off numerous would-be tacklers from 10 metres out, scoring what became a converted try for an 18-all game.

That score-line was short-lived when Fuller slotted a penalty goal from close range and Coona was back in the lead 20-18.

The reigning premiers were not done yet and with three minutes remaining Chanse Burgess threaded a grubber through, which second-rower Austin Burgess was able to ground in-goal for the match-winning try, the final score 22-20.

Unicorns captain-coach Nick Willoughby, whilst obviously disappointed with the loss, was happy overall after a great performance by his side against the benchmark team in the competition.

He said there were many positives to come out of the game and with the blend of young and older players that the Unicorns team has, he is confident they will continue to improve and be heavily involved in the final series.

Rest of Round 9

In other games Gulgong managed to overcome the long road trip to Coonamble and the Bears on their home turf to register an important 36-32 victory, whilst the Narromine Jets remained in third position on the ladder with a 28-16 win over the Cobar Roosters.

The Warren Bulldogs broke through for their first win of the season, toppling Baradine 46 to 22 at Baradine.

Round Nine scores

League Tag

• Coolah 34 (Molly Burgess 3, Brooklyn Blackadder 2, Mackenzie Blackadder, Emma Pettet tries, Lisa Jones 3 goals) Coonabarabran 8 (Anthea Karavas 2 tries)

• Baradine 38 (Jorja Carey 3, Maria Nagy 2, Savannah Carey 2 tries, Nagy 5 goals) Warren 20 (Mab Fuller 2, Lilly Dayes 2 tries, Maddie Marks 2 goals)

• Coonamble 22 (Shakaye Walker 2, Wanitta Glover, Mickayla McEwen tries, Leah Jackson 2, Sam Turnbull goals) Gulgong 20 (Millie Harper, Montana Liebeck, Chloe Patrick, Ella Hawkins tries, Liebeck, Dayna Manley goals)

• Narromine 52 (Rebecca Trethowan 3, Shian Chatfield 2, Kelsea Phillips, Lily Spackman, Chloe McLean, Emily Fardell tries, Chatfield 5, Trethowan goals) Cobar 0

Reserve Grade

• Coonabarabran 42 (Cody Howe, Lachlan Sutherland, Nash Walker, Beau Hinton, Tyrone Walker, Anthony Harris, Tim Wark tries, Jarvis Watton 7 goals) Coolah 16 (Hugh Pettet 2, Charlie Spicer tries, Pettet 2 goals)

• Baradine 26 (Travis Houghton 2, Johno Evans, Liam Blackall, Jai Cain tries, Cain 3 goals) Warren 6 (Jack Healy try, Alex Sutherland goal)

• Gulgong 30 (Caiden Horton 3, Reigan Cullen, Tom James tries, Horton 4, Ty Reynolds goals) Coonamble 14 (Matt Boney, Kevin Thurston, Nathan Walker tries, Brendan Draper goal)

• Narromine 34 (J Landsborough 2, D J Gordon, Liam Wherritt, Robbie Wakefield, Kaleb Beer tries, Wherrit 5 goals) Cobar 16 (Zac Haines, Veni Taumaolo, Jamal Eves tries, 3 goals)

• Mendooran 14 (Carter Swan 2, Matt Murray tries, Stephen Eyles goal) Binnaway 10 (Kevin Nolan, Ash Conn tries, Nathan Budd goal)

First Grade

• Coolah 22 (Austin Burgess 2, Jacob Medd, Braydon Burgess, Chanse Burgess tries, Braydon Burgess goal) Coonabarabran 20 (Eddie Kuras, Sonny Bill Walker, Sam Pickette, Quade Milgate tries, Brad Fuller 2 goals)

• Warren 46 (Elias Kennedy 3, Harry Thaux 2, Donald Kennedy, Victor Kennedy, Deca James, Ryan Williams tries, Thomas Potter 5 goals) Baradine 22 (Alan Riley, Dylan Hohnberg, Riley Arndell, Tom Purdy tries, Liam Fernando 3 goals)

• Gulgong 36 (Brad James, Curtis Carr, Joey Annetts, Jackson Pascoe, Toby O’Leary, Matt Stachnik tries, James 6 goals) Coonamble 32 (Andrew Peacock 2, Dwayne McEwen, Jack Kelly, Daniel Sangster, Paul Richter tries, Brenton Glover 4 goals)

• Narromine 28 (Corey Cox 2, Epeli Dranidalo 2, Kaiden Hill tries, Cox 4 goals) Cobar 16 (Tim Hillam 2, Thomas Plater tries, Plater 2 goals)

• Dunedoo bye.