After a tumultuous and fiery preliminary final victory 10 days ago, Dubbo Bulls were being largely written off as contenders for the Western Premier League soccer title over the weekend.

As you may have read in Dubbo Photo News at the time, the local derby champs had a total of four players sent-off in their Preliminary Final against the defending premiers Macquarie United.

The club vowed to bounce back from the ban of the four from the grand final, and they did so in style, overcoming Bathurst 75s on their home turf in a gutsy performance.

Bulls’ first-year captain-coach and goalkeeper, Mitch Callinan, wasn’t fazed by the task ahead, however.

“I just asked my boys to keep focussed on what’s ahead; ‘control the controllables and don’t worry about referees or the opposition, just do what we have done all season’,” he explained.

“We had to bring up four players to our starting line-up and each of them rose to the occasion,” Callinan said proudly.

His wise sporting words, then, certainly paid off!

Inspirational on-field leader Gareth Williams scored both goals (including a penalty) to seize the trophy with their 2-1 victory.

The four players promoted to the big show also all showed grace under pressure, Callinan observed.

“Brodie Austin, who’s been the Golden Boot in our local competition for the past few years; Scott Fox, who has years and years of experience; Jayden Leonard is in the form of his life, he’s scored 10 or 11 goals in the last three or four club games; and Aaron Riley, who’s a Bathurst boy who has just moved out and taken what we have been doing with gusto.”

In the end, it was a stunning result for the Bulls who are now amazingly Western Premier League Champions for 2026!