General News
9 April, 2025
Pink Panthers have a key role to play in re-build of rugby league in Gilgandra
Supporting the town’s remaining league tag side is a priority as Gilgandra looks to ensure the 2025 rugby league season is simply “a break”.
Last Wednesday night (April 2) the Panthers made the heart-breaking decision not to field either men’s first grade or reserve grade teams in the 2025 Castlereagh League competitions.
The club released an official statement last Thursday evening (April 3) to confirm that news.
“Gilgandra RLFC has last night decided to take a break from the 2025 Castlereagh First Grade Competition,” the statement read.
“Due to lack of training numbers and other commitments, the club has found it difficult to commit a team to the competition for this season.
“The club will remain vigilant in obtaining a strong and viable team for 2026 and do everything in its power to get up and running then.
“We will still have a league tag team this season, so it will be good if everyone can get behind the girls this season. Bring on 2026!!!”
With a decision already made not to play reserve grade if a first grade side could not be entered, it means there is no male senior rugby league in Gilgandra in 2025.
The positive for the club is that the ladies league side, the Pink Panthers, will play on this year. The team was already back in action over the weekend at the Castlereagh League league tag knockout at Baradine.
Gilgandra president Shane Byrne and Luke Ritchie will co-coach the side.
With this small silver lining, the club has asked the community to support this side to allow to club to build for 2026.
“It’s important we get behind them,” he said.
“It would be good for people to get down and support them.
“If they have a lot of fun and see a lot of people supporting them, the blokes might see it too and go well that’s alright playing football in Gil and come and have a game.”
While discussions are preliminary and need to be ratified by Castlereagh League, its referee association and other clubs, the potential of Friday night home league tag fixtures to make life easier for many will be considered.
Panthers league tag matches are also likely to be gold coin entry into McGrane Oval.
Asked what the club will do now to try and ensure it has a men’s first grade side in the 2026 Castlereagh League competition, Byrne said simply getting back to work and recruiting players.
“Just be basically doing what I do now,” Byrne said. “I had a look at a potential player list and there is about 32 to 34 blokes bloke that could’ve played this year or told me at some stage this year that they were going to play, and we ended up with just nine
“So it’ll be getting around those guys and just asking them again (to play).
“Now that the reserve grade is not going play they know they’re not going to get away with just playing reserve grade.
“Hopefully a few of those guys who were just playing reserve grade will think: ‘We need to get keep footy going, we’ll play first grade’ and the ones that are good enough do that. The aim will be to get 30 so we can have a side.”
Byrne has seen hard times before.
He was going to play in 2005 when the club pulled out of Castlereagh League and laced up the boots the next year when the club re-joined the competition, but didn’t win a game.
However, 2006 was a building block for continual improvement that led to Gilgandra becoming a competition heavyweight.
“When we started, we had a lot of young blokes in the side, but we had a few old heads that had been around for years and years that auto motivated to get the train and to get there on game days and stuff like that,” Byrne said.
At this stage, there is no hard and fast Castlereagh League rule that says Gilgandra cannot only field a ladies league tag side in 2026.
A Castlereagh League source said two discussion points that will be raised at the Castlereagh League annual general meeting in November is re-entry criteria for clubs that do not field a men’s first grade side the previous season and the Castlereagh League reserve grade competition.
The short reserve grade competition that begins in late June and has five or six rounds before finals has become very attractive for players, to the point Castlereagh League executives are concerned it is beginning to affect the integrity of the first grade competition.
At this stage, the 2025 Castlereagh first grade competition has nine sides (Baradine, Cobar, Coolah, Coonabarabran, Dunedoo, Coonamble, Gulgong, Narromine, Warren) and league tag has 10 sides (including Gilgandra).
The make-up for reserve grade will be known later in the season, but will include Mendooran in partnership with Dunedoo.
For Byrne and the Panthers committee, he said there was some relief after a stressful few months with the final call made for 2025, the president having mixed emotions.
Byrne has carried the strain of trying to get the men’s first grade side on the field this year, often spending four-to-five hours a night trying to get a side together on top of his day job and family commitments.
