The first weekend of the 2025 Christie and Hood Castlereagh League finals saw some great on field action taking place at Narromine on Saturday and then again at Gulgong on Sunday.

Narromine’s Cale Oval was the venue for Saturday’s qualifying semifinals with the opening reserve grade game between the Baradine Magpies and the Binnaway Bombshells setting the tone for the weekend when they put on a entertaining game, with the Maggies just getting up 12 to 10 after the Bombshells got out to an early lead.

Following that the Dunedoo Swannettes and the Narromine Jets engaged in what was a high standard and closely fought game of league tag for the majority of the encounter, until the Swannettes powered away in the latter stages to record an impressive 24 to 8 victory after it was 12 points to 8 in favour of Dunedoo at half time.

As much as the Narromine Jets ran out deserved first grade winners over the Coonabarabran Unicorns, they benefited from a number of errors made by the blue and golds throughout the match which certainly did no harm to their cause.

For the opening quarter of the game the Unicorns barely made it over halfway due to their lack of possession, and after 17 minutes the home side had racked up 18 unanswered points, six of those coming after an interception of a very adventurous pass by Coonabarabran in one of their rare attacking forays into Narromine territory.

The Unicorns did manage a converted try not long after to make it 18 to 6, and looked to be in the game again not long after, but the final pass of an otherwise impressive backline raid went astray and the chance to reduce the margin was lost.

The visitors’ woes continued when they lost a player to the sin bin for holding down in a tackle with four minutes remaining in the first half, with the Jets immediately taking advantage of playing against a team one man down and at half time they lead by 24 to 6.

To their credit the Unicorns came out and “won” the second half 16 to 10, but the scoreboard damage done in the first half was too much to overcome, and they now walk the sudden death tightrope beginning next Saturday when they will host the Gulgong Bull Terriers in the minor semifinal.

The Bull Terriers had to fight hard against the Coonamble Bears in the elimination final played at Gulgong on Sunday.

In a game that ebbed and flowed, going from one end to the other, the lead changed twice in the first half before it was locked up at 16-all at half time, and then once again the lead changed twice in the second stanza before the Gulgong side got their nose in front with just 12 minutes remaining, and then went on to score two converted tries in those remaining minutes to win the game that could easily have gone either way 32 to 22.

The earlier games at Gulgong saw Coonamble get over the top of Coonabarabran in the reserve grade by the tune of 42 to 24, and Baradine got home against Cobar in the League Tag with a 30 to 10 win.

The four remaining teams in each grade will be whittled down to three next weekend, with the losers of the games being played at Coonabarabran on Saturday ending their 2025 campaigns.

Sunday’s major semifinals at Coolah will feature the only two undefeated teams in the Castlereagh League competitions thus far this season, those being the Coolah Flyers in league tag and the Coolah Kangaroos in first grade.

The big carrot for the winner of the first-grade clash between the Roos and the Narromine Jets is the hosting rights for the 2025 Christie and Hood Castlereagh League grand finals.

The first game at both the minor and major semi final venues will kick off at 11.30am with the other grades to follow straight on.

Christie and Hood Castlereagh League semifinal scores

Qualifying semifinals played Saturday, August 9, at Cale Oval, Narromine.

Reserve Grade: Baradine Magpies 12 (Jai Caine, Brandon Worrell tries, Caine 2 goals) defeated Binnaway Bombshells 10 (Michael Daley, Jade Hooper tries, Travis Tighe goal).

League Tag: Dunedoo Swannettes 24 (Chelsea Gallagher, Shelley Cox, Alexis Gallagher, Jessie Newton tries, Cox 3, Chelsea Gallagher goals) defeated Narromine Jets 8 (Chloe McLean try, Shian Chatfield 2 goals)

First Grade: Narromine Jets 34 (Darby Gordon 3, Corey Cox 2, Epeli Dranunidalo tries, Cox 5 goals) defeated Coonabarabran Unicorns 22 (Brad Fuller 2, Jarvis Watton, Jordan Baker tries, Nick Willoughby 3 goals).

Elimination semifinals played at Billy Dunn Oval, Gulgong, Sunday August 10.

Reserve Grade: Coonamble Bears 42 (Malakai Haley 2, Nathan Walker, Mat Boney, Kevin Thurston-Welsh, Brendan Draper, Vincent Hill, Lewis Ellis tries, Thurston-Welsh 3, Draper, Kobe Leonard goals) defeated Coonabarabran Unicorns 24 (Jake Deshon 2, Sonny Bill Walker, Marshal Tighe tries, Walker 4 goals).

League Tag: Baradine Magpies 30 (Maria Nagy 2, Jalika Leslie, Zali Fulton, Jorja Carey, Chelsea Woodham tries, Nagy 3 goals) defeated Cobar Roosterettes 10 (Taylah Good, Kayla Hasson-Williams tries, Brianna Watson goal)

First Grade: Gulgong Bull Terriers 32 (Toby O’Leary 2, Jason Morrison, Jackson Pascoe, Blake Gorrie, Will Hawkins tries, Brad James 4 goals) defeated Coonamble Bears 22 (Dwayne McEwen 2, Kane Wiggins, Andrew Peacocke tries, Brenton Glover 3 goals).

Next weekend:

Saturday, August 16: Minor semi finals to be played @ Coonabarabran with 11.30am kick off for reserve grade and other games to follow straight on.

Reserve Grade: Binnaway Bombshells v Coonamble Bears

League Tag: Narromine Jets v Baradine Magpies

First Grade: Coonabarabran Unicorns V Gulgong Bull Terriers

Sunday, August 17: Major semifinals at Coolah with a 11.30am start.

Reserve Grade: Narromine Jets V Baradine Magpies

League Tag: Coolah Flyers V Dunedoo Swannettes

First Grade: Coolah Kangaroos V Narromine Jets