Three grounds were required to accommodate the nine league tag and seven youth league teams that competed in the preliminary rounds of the knockouts.

The Cobar Roosters, on debut in the Castlereagh League competition, made an auspicious start when their league tag side defeated the Gilgandra Pink Panthers 12-nil in the final, signalling that they will be force throughout the competition.

If the Roosters sent out a signal the Coonabarabran Unicorns youth league side let off a cannon as they powered their way to the winner’s podium, defeating Gulgong 20-6 in the final, after previously disposing of Gilgandra and Cobar in the preliminaries.

Women’s Rugby League then took centre stage with Castlereagh League laying down the red carpet for the Group 11 sides in the WWRLC.

The highly entertaining Under 18 fixture saw the Group 11 combination come out firing, aided by some flimsy Castlereagh defence, and with just two minutes to go in the first half they had raced in four tries plus one goal and lead 18-nil.

Some great ball work by the Castlereagh team on the cusp of halftime saw winger Lakeisha Hull go over out wide and the sides went to the sheds 18-4.

Any momentum lost by Group 11 due to that try was picked up by the Castlereagh team in the second stanza and they went on to register 14 unanswered points, with tries to Kiara Hawkins, Meegan Seymour, and Kyaih Astill, plus a goal to Jaide Scott.

The Cougars were rattling home and with just three minutes remaining it was 18-all, which was to be the final score, the spirited comeback effort warmly appreciated by the home crowd.

Maddy Wallace, Jami Roberts and Lakeisha Hull all turned in great displays in a very well performed team.

Despite their efforts to emulate the Under 18’s sterling display the Castlereagh senior side was outgunned by their Group 11 counterparts 52-4.

With the majority of the side playing for their respective clubs in the league tag knockout during the afternoon in hot and draining conditions there was a certain element of pre-game fatigue for a lot of the side before they took the field.

Despite this, Castlereagh opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Tori Canham was able to get over from close range to make it 4-nil. But that was to be about as much joy the Castlereagh side had for the rest of their outing with Group 11 gaining a huge amount of possession for the remainder of the game and running away with it.

Castlereagh didn’t shirk it an any way, but with possession running 80 per cent to 20 against them it was an insurmountable task, the visitors went in for nine tries to win convincingly.

The Castlereagh League preliminary season will continue on April 7, when Gulgong will host the senior rugby league knockout as well as the final round of the WWRLC with Castlereagh up against Group 10. The competition proper will get under way on April 14.