With the long weekend bye ahead, Woodbridge Cup has reached its half way point.
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Seven rounds in and the men's competition is neck and neck at the top with Manildra and Peak Hill both unbeaten.
Canowindra are close behind while Trundle pulled off an important 35-32 win against Oberon in Oberon last weekend to move into fourth. The Mid-West clubs have become more than comfortable with CSU, Orange United and Oberon occupying fifth to sixth.
In League Tag, Manildra will be hard to run down, sitting four points ahead of second. Grenfell, Canowindra and CSU all trail behind on eight points. Grenfell and Molong are both well ahead in Youth League sitting equal first and unbeaten.
So with Woodbridge's players having a break, it's time to chew the fat with Woodbridge Cup president Andrew Pull.
The new clubs that joined from Mid-West have come in with a real positive attitude and fitted in really well.
- Andrew Pull
What have you made of the season so far?
"It's been absolutely terrific, I'm so impressed that the new clubs that joined from Mid-West have come in with a real positive attitude and fitted in really well."
On the topic of the merger, has everything worked fine with the clubs?
"I had a good talk to Oberon the other day, they were happy, they just want to fit in as good as they can, everything has been really good. A fair few weeks ago Condobolin had some trouble with their home ground being double booked. We got on the phone to Oberon straight away, they swapped home and away and it wasn't a problem. (We're finding) the first response is 'what can we do to help?', everything is going along well."
"Another example is Trundle went to Oberon last week and won and it would've been 1 or 2 degrees and for them to go that far just shows that we're pretty well organised and travel isn't the end of the world."
Does Molong's forfeit last week present any problems?
"I spoke to Jenny (Molong president Jenny Barrow) very briefly, it seemed like it was just a hiccup along the road."
What did you make of Canowindra's game under lights on May 7? Do you see more of these night games happening in the future?
"That was absolutely terrific, the lights at Canowindra were only set at 85 per cent because they weren't quite fully hooked into the grid. It's a great asset for Canowindra as well as the ones at Molong that have been installed."
"It's more going to be a real asset for both communities, both clubs share their grounds with junior league and rugby union and it opens up more possibilities. Rugby union has scheduled a few Friday night games so rugby league can have games on the Saturday and it's going to open it up for the whole community.
"Woodbridge Cup is community rugby league, there's so much more to our clubs than what happens on the field."
Woodbridge men's representative match against George Tooke Shield ended in a draw. What worked well for the side?
"It was a great game to watch, I was so impressed with the attitude of the Woodbridge team, they were certainly a lot smaller than the opposition but they rolled their sleeves up and really got into them."
"Finn Grabham, a second-rower from CSU, just got really competitive at one stage and starting barrelling the opposition forwards and he set a precedent of the rest of the game. Then Condobolin's Tyronne Johnstone came on and took the game by the scruff of his neck. They were all so humble and happy to be there, it was definitely a representative game because both sides lifted well above the speed and physicality you see at club level, it was good reward for our best players to play together and be recognised."
Did you anticipate the men's ladder to look how it is at this stage of the season?
"I probably expected the top four to be the top four. I expected Manildra, Peak Hill, Canowindra and Trundle to really shine, the Mid-West sides were going to be an unknown but they've been really competitive and fitted in well. I'm curious to see how Grenfell fare from here, they could go on a bit of a run with a few good wins and march up the ladder."
Is there anything else that's impressed you this season?
"The referees. There's extra sides and extra games and the Woodbridge referees association has worked with Group 10 a little bit and so far we've had officials at every venue. If you go back a little bit in the old Mid-West there might've been a game without a touch judge but so far this year the Woodbridge referees association have worked so hard. We've had three officials for every game played, with extra sides it was always going to be a hassle but they've managed it."
"They've got a lot of young referees, I was speaking to the referees boss this morning and he's pretty excited about some of the young guns they've got- they've been putting up their hands up to make sure they get the commitments done each week."