Sport
9 July, 2024
Roosters add to Panthers’ despair!
The Ahrens Gilgandra Panthers played against the Cobar Roosters in their Christie and Hood Castlereagh League round nine game.
Following hard on the heels of a sturdy, yet losing, performance against the undefeated Coolah Kangaroos the week before, the Ahrens Gilgandra Panthers suffered the same fate against the second placed Cobar Roosters in their Christie and Hood Castlereagh League round nine game played at McGrane Oval last Saturday, June 29.
Being the final game in the Combined Codes of Cancer Day staged by the Panthers and the Gulargambone Rugby Union Club, the game was played under lights in front of a large and vocal crowd who were treated to an entertaining match that had the potential to go either way as it evolved.
Gilgandra was first to score in the 13th minute when centre Mick Louie was able to steal the ball from a Cobar winger who had just defused a bomb and he strolled over to make it 4-nil. That lead was short lived, when on the back of a cheap penalty given away by the Panthers, Cobar’s lock Loma Atuau barged over for a converted try.
The Roosters then mounted numerous raids on the Gilgandra line, and as they have done in recent matches the Gilgandra defence stood up to the hammering until, after yet another penalty conceded by the Panthers, Cobar’s five-eighth, Tristan Everett, got over from close range to score a try which was converted to make it 12-4. The two sides went at each other, and it wasn’t until 36 minutes had elapsed that spectators witnessed Cobar’s winger, Pais Wisil, a triallist for the Fijian Olympic athletics team, showing just how fast he was, when he scorched 80 metres down the eastern touchline to score a long range try, after the Panthers had been applying pressure at the other end of the field. That try made the scoreboard read 16-4 at the half-time break, but it soon became 22-4 after the resumption of play, when Cobar’s robust winger Gerald Mackay scored.
The Panthers were not going away and Isaac Frost, one of Gilgandra’s lightweight props and one of their best on the day, managed to score after a strong run, to make it 22-8 and with Ty Sutherland converting it was game on at 22-10. Frost’s try seemed to breathe belief and vigour into the Panthers’ game and they were beginning to make inroads into Cobar’s defence when they moved the ball wide. Unfortunately for the many Gilgandra supporters at the game that belief and vigour was not matched by the Panthers' ball security, with many an inspiring attacking raid amounting to nothing as possession went astray.
Still, it was to be the Panthers who did score next, when Craig Simpson went over from dummy half with 14 minutes remaining to make it 22-14. This was to be the final score, with Cobar’s victory hard earned against a Gilgandra side that never gave up but were let down by their errors. The Panthers were best served by Isaac Frost and his front row partner Nathan Walker who both toiled tirelessly along with Evan Ryan in the centres.
Earlier in the day the Pink Panthers again showed promise before going down to the Cobar Roosterettes 22-10 with Kiara Brown being a standout while the reserve grade side played a trial game against a big Cobar outfit, coming away with a 40-12 win.
The Ahrens Gilgandra Panthers will have a bye next week while the Pink Panthers and the Reggies will be playing Dunedoo, at Dunedoo, on Friday night.
