General News
9 April, 2025
Panthers make difficult decision
For the first time in 20 years, Gilgandra will not a field a men’s first grade rugby league side in the Castlereagh Rugby League competition.
The Panthers, perennial competition heavyweights who played in seven straight grand finals between 2015 and 2022, will not field any men’s side in 2025.
Last rights for male senior rugby league this year were called at a committee meeting last Wednesday night (April 2), with the club making a public announcement the following night.
The final decision had been inevitable for around a month, president Shane Byrne said.
Gilgandra fought to the end, first going public urging players to get to training on March 10, just couldn’t find enough committed personnel.
The Panthers committee had earlier made the decision at a March 19 committee meeting that if first grade does not play this year, neither will reserve grade.
While there was some discussion at last Wednesday night’s meeting about that, the club stuck with its original stance.
That means the ladies league tag outfit to be coached by Byrne and Luke Ritchie will be the only senior side to represent the proud rugby league town in 2025.
Gilgandra started training back last November and had coach Bill Welsh appointed for a second term.
Things started positively with 15 players at one session in November.
However, in the new year, the best attendance was around 10 players, Byrne said.
Byrne said at worst the club could operate with 24 to 25 committed first grade tackle players, but realistically you need 30 players to get through a season with injuries and unavailability.
Gilgandra were never near that number in 2025, in terms of committed people attending training or registering, rather than just considering playing.
And while a committee meeting on March 19 elected to give the club an additional two weeks to find players, Shane said the time had come to make the final call with the men’s season beginning with the Castlereagh League knockout at Warren this Saturday (April 12).
“You’ve got to sort of pull the pin on it at a certain time,” Byrne said.
“Opposition towns are preparing home game and to play you, expecting you to be there. You can’t be turning up every second week. It’s not fair on the other towns, or our club.”
Byrne said last Wednesday’s final meeting was relatively short as most in attendance knew the club didn’t have the players required for first grade.
“The only sort of talking point was what to do with reserve grade but ultimately that decision was made because it’s a first grade competition and you have to keep the integrity of first grade,” he said.
“It’s a tough stand, but it had to be done.
“There’s a lot of blokes that have been training since November that I feel bad for.
“They have down there since November training hard and then they’re not going to get a game at all.
“It’s disheartening for them … but it’s just not good enough to (only) play reserve grade each year.”
Byrne said while satisfied the club did everything they could to get a team, for the last five-to-six weeks he had large doubts whether Gilgandra would get a first grade side.
“We did have one good training session there (on Tuesday, March 25) where about half-a-dozen new faces turned up,” Byrne said.
“But just sort it wasn’t quite enough to keep it going.
“Since about late February or early March it hasn’t really looked like there was any light at the end of the tunnel.
“We could’ve called it in February or early March and we could’ve called it then and just give up on it.
“People around town were saying: “They won’t fold, they’ll turn up, just leave it for a bit, they’ll turn up.’
“So you’d wait and leave it for a bit longer. The decision had to be made. We left it to the very last minute.”
Asked if there were any recent indications the club could struggle to field a first grade side this year, Byrne felt the loss of some senior players across the last few years made it a little tougher to entice players undecided about playing to commit.
Byrne said former captain-coaches like Jamie Towney and Ashley Hazelton who mainly led the club during the golden era of 2015-2022 had a unique ability to motivate people to play. Losing another leader Nathan Walker at a similar time while also losing a couple of younger mentors in recent times hurt as well.
Administration wise, Byrne has taken over from Peter Hazelton who was president for the best part of the last two decades until the end of 2023.
Byrne has had to try and lead the club through a re-building phase.
“Probably a block of senior players all retired and left at the same time,” he said.
“That’s sort of one thing off the top of my head … we sort of didn’t really have anyone younger that could take that leadership role and get the boys there and motivate the boys.
“It’s important if you have it, to have someone to jump in and steer them around and tell him to get the training and things like that.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had less than 24 or 25 (players) in the years previous before maybe last year we probably dwindled down to around 24 at the end of the season in 2024.”
While people close to the club knew the writing had been on the wall for some time, the club’s success means this news that Gilgandra will not enter first grade or reserve grade will come as a shock to other communities.
Gilgandra won Castlereagh League first grade premierships in 2011, 2013 and three straight from 2016 to 2018 since re-joining the competition in 2006, adding to a 2001 Castlereagh League title and group 14 premierships in 1956, 1981, 1986, 1987 and 1997 along with a group 11 premiership in 1989.
Gilgandra also played in every Castlereagh League first grade grand final held between 2015 and 2022.
