Sport
3 June, 2026
Pink Panthers Sitting Pretty on Ladder
The Gilgandra Pink Panthers scored the club's only win at McGrane Oval on Saturday, May 30.
By Laura Jordan
Coona overpowers Panthers in youth league second half
The Gilgandra Panthers were host to the Coonabarabran Unicorns in all four grades last Saturday (May 30) in round six of the Christie and Hood Castlereagh Rugby League competition.
The Youth League opened the day and the Unicorns were quick to add points to the board, as the panthers struggled to complete a set, building 12 unanswered points in the first 20 minutes of the match. Gilgandra’s front rower Cale McEwen Crashed over in the 28th minute to put the Panthers on the board with Peter Peters converting to make it 12-6 going into the break and giving the home team confidence.
Quick out of the gates in the second half Gilgandra were on the attack. Brodie Heffer, not shy of hard running, showed the home crowd what he is capable of and was rewarded with a try. Another successful conversion to Peters and the Panthers quickly evened the score to 12-all. Several handling errors to the Panthers created opportunities for the Unicorns to capitalise on, scoring three times in 12 minutes. An unfortunate injury to a young Unicorn meant the game was called off eight minutes early giving Coonabarabran the win 26-12.
Reggies run into rampant Coona outfit
Reserve grade were up next to take the field against the Unicorns, who on paper and on field proved a strong outfit.
The first 10 minutes of the game was an arm wrestle, both sides going close to scoring.
Coona were first to crack the defence line and opened the scoring.
Despite hard running by Panther’s Jerome Chatfield the Gilgandra guys couldn’t crack the tough Coona defence line. Handling errors from the home team cost them possession and Coona were too strong to be giving the ball away, leading 18-nil going into the break. The Panthers were under defensive pressure for a large amount of the second half and the Unicorns didn’t need any more favours, taking a 30-nil lead three quarters into the game. Gil finally seeing the ball this half couldn’t get the ball out wide to capitalise on some space on the edges. Coonabarabran with defensive efforts too strong took the game 42-nil denying the home team any chance of getting points on the board.
Pink Panthers win after the bell in epic fight
The Pink Panthers have had a run of close games this season with four wins, a draw and a narrow loss. Saturday’s game was no different going down to the wire.
Coonabarabran are in a similar state to the Gilgandra girls, having spent the past few years building a team back up to be competitive once again in the competition.
The Coona girls opened this match with strong attack, bursting through the Pink Panther Defence several times making the Panther girls scramble in defence. Pinned deep in their own defensive territory the Gil girls hung on for 12 minutes before Coona were able to step their way through and take the score to 4-nil.
It was deep in to the first half before Gil had possession over half way.
Playing better and throwing everything at the Coona defence, Gilgandra’s Mackaylah Ross busted through to take the game to 4-all. With less then a minute to go in the first half, Gilgandra added pressure to the Coona girls by the works of Kiara Brown breaking their line from 50 meters out, backed up by Laura Jordan who was chased down and tagged a meter from the line right on the hooter.
The half time score line represented the game, close and hard fought, with the possession in the second half also evening out.
Sisters, Wendy and Kiara Brown were amazing in defence saving the Unicorns from scoring several times, but Conna’s hard running at their line opened the scoring for the second half and the away team lead 8-4 right up until the last play of the game.
Following the hooter and with the last desperate opportunity of the match, Rani Diggs kicked over the top of the Coona defence from 30 meters out with Kiara Brown in chase.
Kiara beat both the dead-ball line and Coonabarabran fullback by a whisker to ground the ball and square up the game. Successfully converting her own try, Kiara won the game for the Panthers 10-8 also deservingly taking the players player points for the week and setting up the Pink Panthers for third position on the Christie and Hood Ladies League Tag ladder.
First grade go down to shiny Unicorns
The large crowd stuck around for the much anticipated first grade matchup between the Panthers and one of the top runners in the competition, the Unicorns.
After the come from behind win in Warren last week and knowing this one would be a tough match, the Panthers wanted to give the unicorns a run for their money with confidence and team morale high leading into the game.
However, Coonabarabran showed up with not only size but style, dominating field possession and reading the Gilgandra plays well, pressuring Gilgandra’s Luke Ritchie each time he planned to finish a set of the home team. Being the fourth game on a slippery and muddy field the play became sloppy but the Unicorns held their 16-point lead until just before half-time when Josh Bamblett gets the bounce from a kick to gather the ball and score for the Panthers.
DJ Smith converted at the break with the score settled as 16-6 to Coonabarabran and hope still for the panther’s if they can control the ball and complete their sets into the next half.
Ex-Panther Anthony Harris smashed those hopes and caused havoc for the home team in defence and the Unicorns ran away with a lead of 32-6 only 10 minutes after the break.
Panther veteran Curtis Carr put an end to that horror period, slicing through the defence and despite heavy boots near the try line beat defenders to score and set up DJ for another successful conversion, taking the score to 32-12.
Not long after, and with a great lead up by Curtis, winger Wayne Smith went over for the home team in the corner. Within minutes Coonabarabran’s Josh Nixon retaliated and went over for his third try of the match to take the lead out to 20 points.
Following several penalties Gilgandra were able to regain momentum and Captain- coach Tyler Bamblett terrorised the right wing to score the home Panthers final points for the game. The Unicorns too good for the Panther’s took the chocolates home with a 42-20 win.
With the long weekend approaching, the Ladies and First Grade Panthers will use the break to prepare for an away game in mid-June against the reigning premiers Coolah Roos, while Reserves and Youth League will score an extra week’s rest.
