A second-half blitz by Cobar Roosters has set up a commanding 54-20 win over Coonabarabran Unicorns in the Major Semi-final of the Christie and Hood Castlereagh League and secured their entry into the 2026 Grand Final and the right to host the big day.
Playing in front of a sizeable crowd at Cobar’s Tom Knight Memorial Oval last Saturday, the first half effort of the Unicorns wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard. Despite having the Roosters pinned down in their own half for a large proportion of the first 40 minutes, the visitors went to the sheds trailing 12-10.
The momentum at that stage was with the Unicorns but the Roosters returned to the field full of running and within 14 minutes they had their opponents well and truly on the back foot after centre Tristan Everett scored a hat-trick having already scored one in the first half to blow the scoreline out to 28-10.
The Roosters extended their lead to 42-10 with 10 minutes remaining before the Unicorns scored two tries to reduce the margin to 42-20. The Roosters clicked back into gear and ran in two more tries in the last three minutes to come away with a 54-20 win, much to the delight of their army of red, white and blue supporters.
Coonabarabran still had plenty to celebrate after their Youth League side secured a Grand Final berth with a convincing 40-6 win over Cobar in the first game of the day.
The opening 12 minutes of the League Tag game saw Dunedoo Swannettes race in an incredible 4 tries for a 20-0 lead over Coolah Flyers. The Flyers stemmed the flow of points and outscored the Swannettes for the remainder of the game, but the damage done in the first 12 minutes proved decisive as Dunedoo took the honours 24-12.
Turning to the Minor Semi-finals played at Coolah on Sunday, it was to be Coolah Kangaroos who emerged as the winners from their first-grade battle against Dunedoo Swans.
The ‘Roos looked as if they were going to take a handy 10-0 lead to the half-time break, but a converted Dunedoo try just before the intermission saw the scoreboard read 10-6 after the first 40 minutes.
A Coolah error from the resumption of play was quickly converted to points and it was game on with the Swans in front 12-10.
However, that lead was very short lived with the Roos quickly responding with a converted try of their own.
A further Coolah try saw them take an eight-point lead, but the Swans refused to go away and scored again to reduce the deficit to 20-18.
Unfortunately, for the green and whites they were unable to score again despite their best efforts with the Kangaroos managing to go in for two more tries, one converted, before capping proceedings off with a field goal to keep their hopes of a third premiership alive with a 31-18 win.
The earlier games saw two wins to Narromine Jets, with their Youth League just getting over the Gilgandra Panthers, the final score being 22-20 whilst their League Tag side proved to be too strong for the Cobar Roosterettes winning 34-6.
The sudden death Preliminary Finals will be played at Coonabarabran this Saturday, featuring the Jets in both the Youth League and the League Tag, their opponents being Cobar Roosters and Coolah Flyers respectively.
The first-grade game will see Coonabarabran Unicorns and Coolah Kangaroos do battle for the third time in four weeks.
The recent results between the two sides sets up a blockbuster contest, with Coolah winning in their final round game played at Mudgee 46-26, before the Unicorns returned serve with 20-18 win the following week in the Qualifying Final.
Click here for all Semi-final scores from the Christie and Hood Castlereagh League.
