Roosters knock the feathers out of the Dunedoo Swans

A young Cobar Roosters First Grade side displayed plenty of skills and maturity to knock the feathers out of the Dunedoo Swans beating them 42-16 in the Christie & Hood Castlereagh League game on Saturday.

Playing at Tom Knight Memorial Oval, the Roosters were buoyed up with the support of a big vocal crowd and produced a scintillating second half to convert the 10-all half time scoreline to a convincing 26 point win.

Cobar’s First Grade run-on side on Saturday included Under 18s players, Kai Taylor and Tadgh McMullen along with Reynold Mugugia on the bench, all of whom had earlier played a full game in their Youth League match against Narromine.

The three were stepping up to fill the big shoes of a number of missing First Grade regulars who were unavailable for Saturday’s game.

Taylor and McMullen, playing on the wings, were outstanding in attack and defence and both were among the list of Roosters’ tryscorers.

For the second week in a row, Tyler Coughlan opened the Roosters’ account early in the match after receiving a great inside pass from Taylor.

Tom Plater converted his first of five tries for the day.

Minutes before halftime Kai Greenwood scored out wide to level the scores to 10-all going into the break.

By this stage Dunedoo, who only had 13 players, were showing signs of tiredness and a couple of players looked to be carrying injuries but they had no option other than to return to the field for the second half.

They however were not prepared for the onslaught of the keen Roosters who fired up shortly after the restart when fullback Ash Davies (who had previously been heavily marked) evaded the Dunedoo defence to touch down and open the Roosters’ account in the second half.

Shortly afterwood Kai Taylor scored and then Lochlan Ford dived over under the posts after a near length of the field run.

Davies broke away with plenty of support and he passed off to McMullen who dived over to score.

Captain/coach Plater scored twice in the second half (including the final try of the game). Both were scored in almost identical fashion, as he dived over from a quick play of the ball near the try line.

Plater handed over the kicking duties for Ben Griffiths to convert his last try of the match.

To their credit, the Swans put up a fight and were rewarded with a late try which improved the final margin to 42-16.

Plater (3) and Ash Davies (1) shared in the referee’s Best & Fairest points with Dunedoo centre, Brian Bradshaw (who scored all three of his team’s tries) earning two points.

Cobar’s Best & Fairest three points went to hard working forward Zane Taylor, Plater earned two points and one point each went to Coughlan and Davies.

Plater also earned the Players’Player title.

The Cobar Senior and Junior Rugby League clubs will host 10 games of rugby league this Saturday at Tom Knight Memorial Oval with the Under 9s game the first to kick off on Saturday morning and First Grade’s match will finish almost 12 hours later under lights.

All 10 games will be played against Narromine.

See Roosters ad below for details.