The 2026 Christie and Hood Castlereagh League Grands Finals will be staged at Cobar’s Tom Knight Memorial Oval on Saturday with the premierships to be decided for three competitions.
The Youth League fixture between Coonabarabran Unicorns and Cobar Roosters will kick off proceedings at 11am.
The trip to Cobar shouldn’t hold too many concerns for the Unicorns after they came away with a big 40-6 win at the same ground just a couple of weeks ago when the two sides clashed in the Major Semi-final.
However, they would be ill advised to think the result is a forgone conclusion as the Roosters will be playing in front of a large and vocal home crowd, which could spur them on to upset the Unicorns.
The League Tag decider will follow which shapes up as a superb contest between two quality sides with undefeated Minor Premiers, Dunedoo Swannettes up against last year’s premiers, Coolah Flyers.
The Swannettes have prevailed this season winning 26-14 at Coolah in Round Five of the competition before coming away with a 24-12 win in the Major Semi-final played at Cobar two weeks ago.
On that occasion, the Swannettes shot out to an early lead before having to dig deep to defend that as the Flyers gained momentum.
To add spice to the contest, the game is a replay of last year’s Grand Final which the Flyers claimed 18-16.
The action will conclude with the blockbuster first grade battle between Cobar Roosters and Coolah Kangaroos.
Except for one loss the Roosters have swept all before them this year.
However, that one and only loss was an 18-10 loss to the Kangaroos in their Round 10 game at Coolah.
Earlier in the year, in Round Two the Roosters were too strong at Tom Knight Oval, winning 34-12.
Whilst Cobar has been travelling along quite nicely throughout the season Coolah has had, by their lofty standards of the previous two years, a slow start. Their recent performances suggest that they have timed their run to the Grand Final rather well.
They are coming into the game after a number of tough Semi-final battles whilst the Grand Final will be only the second game for the Roosters in four weeks.
Having Grand Final experience will not be an issue for the ‘Roos but many members of the Cobar side could still be smarting from their 2024 Grand Final loss to Coolah and no doubt will be doing their utmost to prevent that happening again on Saturday.
A huge crowd is expected to pack into Tom Knight Memorial Oval to watch all the action.
Gates will open at 9am with the first-grade game will not kick off before 2pm.
