Central West Rugby

[Agent]

A bit of movement in the CW Blowes Cup 1st grade coaching ranks this year with several clubs having change at the top.
Cowra: Adam Meiklejohn
Forbes: Guy Wilkinson
Bathurst Bulldogs: Chris Plunkett
Orange Emus: Andy Hillam joins Nigel Staniforth
Orange City (Greg Lee) and Dubbo Roos (Tom Koerstz) remain unchanged.

 

[schmidt it in]

country rugby alive and well. Next to the newcastle comp, would the central west be the strongest country comp? Assume new england area is handy as well?

Hunter Rugby would be up there for sure, clubs are also seeing some players who want to play Wildfires but aren't quite there move into the local premier comp making the quality rise.

Wildfires - 2 x Men, 2 x Colts, 2 x Womens
Premier - 6 clubs with 3 grades
Social 4ths - 8 teams
Suburban - 8 teams
Womens XV - 8 teams

 

[schmidt it in]

A bit of movement in the CW Blowes Cup 1st grade coaching ranks this year with several clubs having change at the top.
Cowra: Adam Meiklejohn
Forbes: Guy Wilkinson
Bathurst Bulldogs: Chris Plunkett
Orange Emus: Andy Hillam joins Nigel Staniforth
Orange City (Greg Lee) and Dubbo Roos (Tom Koerstz) remain unchanged.

Hey mate,

I might be moving to Central West next year and recently spent about a month in Forbes.
I have been trying to wrap my head around the Central West competitions.

From my understanding Blowes Cup is the main Central West competition, like what Premier is in the Hunter region.
Blowes Cup has 3 grades, with these teams:
- Orange City
- Orange Emus
- Bathurst Bulldogs
- Dubbo Kangaroos
- Forbes Platypi
- Cowra Eagles

But for some reason Forbes and Cowra only have 1st and 2nd grade mens sides. Is there no requirement for 3 grades to be in Blowes Cup?

Then you have the New Holland Cup, which looks to be the only other Central West mens competition with multiple grades. Clubs are:
- CSU Mitchell (Charles Sturt Bathurst)
-Dubbo Rhinos
- Mudgee Wombats
- Parkes Boars
- Narromine Gorillas


Now looking at Rugby Xplorer, all the 5 clubs in the New Holland Cup have listed 2 grades for the 2025 season.

This leads to my second question:
How come Parkes and Forbes aren't in the same competition? They both have 2 grades, and are a 30 minute drive away. Wouldn't having these two as a local derby match be a great day of rugby?

Then I guess my last question is:
Is the quality between the Blowes Cup and New Holland Cup such a big difference? And if not, why don't they merge to create an eleven team 1st and 2nd grade, and then a 4 team 3rd grade.

Please excuse any ignorance, I have no experience with CW Rugby other than playing at Bathurst Bulldogs ground as a junior for one weekend. Would love to learn more about the different comps!

 

[yourmatesam]

Hey mate,

Blowes Cup is a higher standard of competition with (generally) larger towns and clubs involved mate.

There's also a Southern version of the New Holland Cup with teams from Cootamundra, Temora, Young, etc in that competition.

The politics of regional rugby can be pretty intense, from what I understand travel and playing within the "traditional" boundaries of the original competitions goes a long way to determining who plays in what comp.

 

[Agent]

Hey mate,

I might be moving to Central West next year and recently spent about a month in Forbes.
I have been trying to wrap my head around the Central West competitions.

From my understanding Blowes Cup is the main Central West competition, like what Premier is in the Hunter region.
Blowes Cup has 3 grades, with these teams:
- Orange City
- Orange Emus
- Bathurst Bulldogs
- Dubbo Kangaroos
- Forbes Platypi
- Cowra Eagles

But for some reason Forbes and Cowra only have 1st and 2nd grade mens sides. Is there no requirement for 3 grades to be in Blowes Cup?

Then you have the New Holland Cup, which looks to be the only other Central West mens competition with multiple grades. Clubs are:
- CSU Mitchell (Charles Sturt Bathurst)
-Dubbo Rhinos
- Mudgee Wombats
- Parkes Boars
- Narromine Gorillas


Now looking at Rugby Xplorer, all the 5 clubs in the New Holland Cup have listed 2 grades for the 2025 season.

This leads to my second question:
How come Parkes and Forbes aren't in the same competition? They both have 2 grades, and are a 30 minute drive away. Wouldn't having these two as a local derby match be a great day of rugby?

Then I guess my last question is:
Is the quality between the Blowes Cup and New Holland Cup such a big difference? And if not, why don't they merge to create an eleven team 1st and 2nd grade, and then a 4 team 3rd grade.

Please excuse any ignorance, I have no experience with CW Rugby other than playing at Bathurst Bulldogs ground as a junior for one weekend. Would love to learn more about the different comps!

A lot to unpack there @schmidt it in - but here goes! If you do move to the CW you will do yourself a favour by getting involved with a rugby club and from personal experience I will say Forbes is certainly a great one!

You've pretty much summed it up with the Blowes and New Holland Cups. Not that many years ago it was one big comp but there was a big difference between the bigger clubs and the smaller clubs, some big score lines, and something needed to change. Eventually the clubs with 3 grades went to Blowes and the others went to New Holland. After a couple of years the smaller towns like Cowra and Forbes started to struggle for 3rd grade but the premier comp needs clubs like these ones to exist otherwise its just back to 4 (Orange x 2, Bathurst, and Dubbo) which isn't a great spectacle. It is hard for the likes of Forbes and Cowra to compete with the Orange / Bathurst / Dubbo clubs, which are based in significantly bigger regional centres, especially being amateur clubs where quality employment opportunities for players are important.

So yes it might seem a bit funny to have clubs like Forbes and Parkes, that are 30km apart, in separate comps but that's just how it has worked out in recent years. It might change one day - who knows - but be assured the 2 towns have a long, and sometimes bitter, rivalry going back many decades across a wide range of sports.

There is also another couple of comps for the one team CW towns - Oilsplus North and Oilplus South West. North teams are: Coonabarabran, Molong, Trangie, Coolah, Blayney, Geurie, Yeoval, Wellington, and Canowindra. South West teams are: Harden, Young, Boorowa, West Wyalong, Cootamundra, Grenfell, Temora and maybe one or 2 others that I can't remember off the top of my head.

I hope this clears some this up for you. BTW - Blowes Cup comp for 2025 kicks off this weekend!