Women’s rugby league team starts in style

There were bright signs for the Gunnedah Bulldogs women’s rugby league team, which started its Group 4 campaign with a 32-8 victory against the North Tamworth Bears at Jack Woolaston Oval last Sunday.

It was the first round of the Mid Season Women’s Tackle competition, after Gunnedah wasn’t involved in the Group 4 Ladies Tackle competition earlier in the year.

Last Sunday’s fixture involved 10 players from each team on the field, with Norths having only one sub while Gunnedah had several.

Bulldogs quartet Tara Wilkinson-Ryan, Reanna Paget, Dakota Durrant and Nautica Eather and Bears quintet Kate Walters, Shiona Weatherall, Amy Barraclough, Jane Hill and Ishinta Knox backed up from the leaguetag match, won 34-10 by Norths.

The Bulldogs received first use of the football and quickly made inroads, before receiving a penalty.

Apryl Bailey soon scored the opening try, and then Wilkinson-Ryan broke away to score the next try in the following set.

Following successive penalties, Norths forced a goal-line dropout before well-timed passes sent Hill across the tryline untouched.

The Bears blundered from the restart, and paid the price as Gunnedah’s Zoe Eather scored soon afterwards.

A try to Weatherall narrowed the scoreline to 14-8 in the lead-up to half-time, and Norths suffered a blow when Knox was forced to leave the field.

A try to Ashlee Haire and a fine angled conversion from Bailey stretched the margin to 12 points in the second half, and then a certain try to Norths was bombed. The ball-carrier fumbled while evading a defender and heading closer to the uprights.

Gunnedah made the mistake of not finding the sideline from a penalty kick, before Courtney Jordan inflicted a bone-jarring tackle.

Bailey’s second try set up an 18-point lead, before Zoe Eather broke clear and brushed off a couple of opponents as she produced a superb solo try.

Gunnedah nearly scored again on full-time following a couple of clever unloads, but the ball was spilled.

Bulldogs president David McCann said “without doubt” it was a good step for the club to have a women’s rugby league side.

“It’s the way everything’s going really,” he said.

“It was a bit disappointing we weren’t able to get a side together when they played earlier in the year, but it’s great to see we’ve managed to put a team together and got really healthy numbers too.”

McCann said there were promising signs not only last Sunday but also late last year when the Bulldogs fielded several players at a couple of gala days.

“The girls looked really keen to get into it, that’s for sure,” he said.