As part of their five-year deal with the Penrith Panthers, Bathurst’s Carrington Park will host a game for the second year running.

In July, 8824 rugby league fans packed into Carrington Park to watch the Panthers do battle with the Cronulla Sharks. The Shire club won 18-16.

It was announced on Monday that the Panthers will take on the Gold Coast Titans at Carrington Park on Saturday, March 14 as the second game in Penrith’s Bathurst partnership.

“We knew that Penrith wanted an earlier game at Bathurst this time and the main reason is they want to try and get a bit better weather than what happened last time,” Bathurst Panthers president Dennis Comerford said.

“It rained this year, but there is nothing you can do about the weather here in winter.

“But to get a second round game, I think it is going to be pretty good because people are going to be hanging out for a game of footy then.”

The NRL released its full draw for the 2015, which will kick-off on Thursday, March 5, with the Broncos hosting premiers South Sydney in Brisbane.

There are four matches that don’t have a location – Sea Eagles v Raiders (April 4), Bulldogs v Sea Eagles (April 17); Rabbitohs v Raiders (April 26) and Sea Eagles v Broncos (July 31-August 3).

Dubbo City Council have been in talks with Manly about hosting one of their matches in 2015 and it’s not known if that will proceed.

Mid-Western Regional Council confirmed there won’t be an NRL match at Glen Willow Stadium next year.

Comerford said the round two clash at Carrington Park will not interfere with the Group 10 competition as that won’t start until a month later.

“It’s great for us, we don’t have to look at having an away game or a bye so council can prepare the ground before the game,” the Bathurst Panthers president said.

“It’s a time of year that will really suit Bathurst, it’s in the middle of March so we will still be in summer conditions.

“People can go along and enjoy it and be more comfortable than they would be sitting at Carrington Park in the middle of winter.

“We will still be in daylight savings times with our 4.30pm kick off and we are the first of three [NRL] games of footy for the day, there’s another one in Sydney and there’s another one in Queensland.”

Comerford believes the timing should bring with it a bigger crowd than this year’s fixture.

“There has been no local footy for them to watch, it’s only the second round of the NRL and all the NRL trials have been played all around the country, so this is one of their first chances to go to a game.”

While the Titans are an inter-state club, there is a Central West link in their ranks in the form of Orange product Daniel Mortimer. 

The Titans played Parramatta in Mudgee in 2013 where they defeated the Eels 42-4 in front of 9132 fans at Glen Willow Stadium.