Panthers top Terriers at home

The Panthers continue to walk the tightrope at the top of the competition ladder following a hard-fought win over the Gulgong Terriers in round 13 of the Christie and Hood Castlereagh League on Saturday, July 23.

The Panthers took to the field in front of their home crowd and after a shaky start, when they handed over possession in the opening set, they were able to recover, and Brandon Hammond charged onto a great pass from Jamie Towney and opened the scoring with a try next to the posts.

DJ Smith converted to make it 6-0 to the Panthers. Gulgong soon replied with a try to James Morrison, when he finished off a planned move to score and convert to even the scores up at 6-6.

The game ventured from end-to-end for the next 20- minutes before Panther centre, George Alchin forced his way over out wide and a great conversion from DJ Smith gave the Panthers a 12-6 lead heading towards half-time. In the final minute of the half, Gulgong launched another attacking raid and Logan Rumming finished off a flurry of passes to touch down out wide.

Another sideline conversion by Morrison meant the teams head for oranges with the scores locked up at 12-12. Gulgong shocked the Panthers in the opening minutes of the second stanza with their free-flowing style of footy and fullback Ethan Pegus chimed into the backline to score under the posts for the visitors. Morrison’s conversion gave the Terriers the lead for the first time in the match.

The Panthers had some luck go their way shortly after when DJ Smith pounced onto an intercept pass and race 50-metres to the try line to touch down under the posts. Smith then added the extras to tie the game up once again at 18-18. Both sides threw everything at each other and with seven minutes to go the Panthers responded to the home crowd cheering them on when George Alchin regathered a kick to touch down in canteen corner.

Smith’s conversion attempt was waved away, and the Panthers had to dig deep for the final five minutes. Fending off a desperate Gulgong side that threw everything at the Panther defence. The final score was 22-18. The gritty match keeps the Panthers at the top of the ladder with Cobar and the loss for Gulgong puts a dent in their finals aspirations as six sides battle for four spots in the semi-finals.

DJ Smith was outstanding for the Panthers, leading his backline around while turning on a great attacking game for the home crowd. Blake Frost and Anthony Harris also had big games for the home side doing all the hard work in both attack and defence.

Hayden Smith is also running into fine form for the Panthers as the big games roll around. The Pinkies worked their way into the top four with a hard-fought win over the Gulgong girls when they played their league tag game on Friday night.

The Pinkies converted a 20-10 half-time lead into a 20-14 victory with Stevie Smith grabbing two tries in a great performance along with Kiara Brown who bagged a try for herself and try scoring machine, Mab Fuller also touched down for a try.

The win puts the Pinkies in equal third position with Dunedoo. but they have some big games ahead of them in the coming weeks. While the boys get this weekend off, the Pink Panthers will be back in action against Binnaway at McGrane Oval and every game from now on is must win for the Pinkies.