Queens of country, another three-peat for region

Women's football is thriving in western NSW as another Country Championships three-peat underlines the region’s growing dominance. This time it was our Central West Blue Bulls women in the NSW Country Rugby Union Championships on the weekend at Scully Park in Tamworth. Parkes Boars boasted three representatives in Courtney Julander, Keilee Kinghorn and Maely MacGregor in the Thomson Cup. They played alongside their neighbours from Forbes, Madi Barclay-George (a former Boar) and Zoe McRae, and Grenfell players Gabby Eade and Hannah Rowan. Parkes had a strong presence at the championships, with the Boars also fielding three colts in the Rowlands Cup. Darcy Dawson, Samuel Ravourou and Dylan Quade from Parkes joined James Burton from Forbes and Jim Hazell from Grenfell. The Blue Bulls women basked in two victories on day one of the championships on Saturday. They smashed both Central North 41-nil and Illawarra 28-7, booking their place in the final on Sunday. The girls won the country championships spectacularly, undefeated against Hunter 17-nil. "I couldn't be prouder. We had some change and a lot of fresh faces, the way the group came together was incredible," said Central West Thomson Cup head coach Lamarn Ma'a. "They put everything into the final after some tough games on Saturday, I'm so pleased we were able to get the result. "It wasn't easy by any means, Hunter made us work for every minute of the final, and for every single point." Unfortunately results went the other way for the Bulls in the Rowlands Cup, they experienced two losses on day one - 8-12 to New England and 3-17 to Central North. They competed in a fifth-place play-off on Sunday, defeating Western Plains 45-14. "We had chances on day one that we didn't take, but I'm really proud of the way the guys bounced back," said Central West Rowlands Cup head coach Jeremy Wallace. "It would've been easy for us to not care but the pride they showed to finish on a high was really fantastic. "It's a great group of guys and a lot are eligible next year, so I'll be excited to see what we can do in colts in 2027."