Cobar Roosters have denied Coolah Kangaroos attempt for a threepeat in the Christie and Hood Castlereagh League after recording a decisive 22-4 victory in the Grand Final at Tom Knight Oval on Saturday.
Played on their home turf, the Chooks were never headed in a contest that was impacted after four players – three from Coolah and one from Cobar – were sent to the sin bin.
The Roosters were the first team to score when hooker Thomas Plater was able to dart over from dummy half in the 13th minute for a try which he converted for a 6-0 lead.
From that point the Roosters began to dominate the game territorially and it was Plater again who scored from dummy half in the 29th minute after Coolah was reduced to 12 men with one of their players in the sin bin.
The ‘Roos rallied towards the end of the first half, but it was to no avail as the Cobar defence stood solid to take a 10-0 lead into half-time.
The resumption of play saw the Roosters called on to defend their line again but they held firm. After ten minutes of play they managed to finally get down the other end of the field where some good ball movement resulted in centre Tristan Everett going over to extend the lead to 14-0.
The Kangaroos needed to score next if they were to be any chance of winning the game and a neat grubber kick from Jake Hawkins was grounded by Jacob Medd to give them some hope at 14-4.
The Roosters responded shortly after via a converted try to Oisin McMullen and with 16 minutes remaining in the game the scoreboard indicated a Cobar victory was looming at 20-4. A further penalty goal increased their lead 22-4 which they saw out to claim the premiership.
With five minutes to go two Coolah players and one Cobar were given an early mark by the referee after the game flared up but it had no impact on the scoreboard.
Earlier in the day, Cobar suffered a narrow 16-14 loss to Coonabarabran Unicorns in the Youth League decider with the game being decided by a penalty goal that was kicked after the full-time siren had sounded.
The young Roosters had come back from being down 14-0 at half-time to tie the game up at 14-all with six minutes remaining and declined a shot at a penalty goal when there was only three minutes to go.
The League Tag game between Dunedoo Swannettes and Coolah Flyers was a replay of last year’s premiership decider but this time it was to the Swannettes that held the premiership shield aloft after they registered a 16-6 win. The win kept the Swannettes undefeated tag for 2026 intact.
The Castlereagh League Player of the Year awards were announced after the respective Grand Finals with the Youth League honours being shared between Cobar’s Jaxon Burke and Gilgandra’s Sailor Ryan. It was the second award for Ryan after he was named the Group 14 Junior Rugby League’s Under 16s Player of the Year the week before.
The League Tag Player of the Year award went to Coolah’s Brooklyn Blackadder who received votes in every competition game throughout the season.
Cobar’s Thomas Plater and DJ Smith from Gilgandra were announced as co-winners of the first-grade player of the year award after they tied in the voting.
Click here for all Grand Final results from the Castlereagh League.
