The Minor Premiership may be headed to Coonamble, but a ruthless Gulgong Terriers side showed this year’s Castlereagh League Premiership will be hotly contested come finals in two weeks time.
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The Terriers absolutely mauled the Trangie Magpies 90 to ten in one of the most lopsided games of the year.
Brad James was the hero for the Terriers, scoring eight tries and kicking 13 conversions for a whopping personal tally of 58 points, something unheard of in the Castlereagh League, if not any league.
The Terriers have now earned a two week break having finished in second and will play Coonamble in the major semi for the right to host the Grand final.
Captain James Carter said the gravity of Saturday’s scoreline came from the fact that the side headed into the game as if they were playing Coonamble, and it certainly paid off.
“It’s good to get back in the winners circle, it was a big confidence booster for Brad (James), I’m sure next game he’ll rip them apart again,” he said.
“We’ll have some good training runs over the next two weeks and hopefully get a win and a home grand final.”
“We talked about Coonamble and how we wanted to play them and completed and stuck to our structures well.
“Even though we made big metres up the middle we didn’t push any bad passes and that was the result.”
It’s hard to draw any negatives from such a clinical performance, but Carter and his side are setting high standards with such a big game coming up in two weeks time away to Coonamble, saying the side was disappointed to concede ten points.
“We had a few defensive lapses on out own line which we were disappointed about but we talked about that and hopefully we can eradicate that come finals,” he said.
“Everyone played really well so I’d be doing an injustice to pick one player out, apart from Brad that is.
“It’s a good way to head into finals, we have a couple of weeks off which will suit us because we’ve got a few boys with some niggling injuries so it will freshen us right up.
“We’ll have some good training runs over the next two weeks and hopefully get a win and a home grand final.”
Despite beating the Terriers last week, Coonamble struggled to get past fourth placed Coonabarabran 38-30 at home proving Gulgong’s trip their in two weeks time is certainly winnable.
The Unicorns pushed the Bears all the way and showed this years competition won’t be a two horse race, with Gilgandra also having an impressive win over Coolah.
The Terriers enjoy the bye this weekend and will be hoping this weekend takes it out of the Bears, Unicorns and Panthers as they prepare to face off in the post-season.
