Country RL: Bush Telegraph #14

Paint your club pink for Breast Cancer

Dear Clubs

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Crystal Bears and Dragons Women in League, the Official Charity Partners of the Illawarra and St George Leagues need your support to make our 10th Year a big one. By doing so you will help raise much needed funds for the Joanne Mackay Breast Cancer Foundation or as its known, Jo's Helping Hand.

This NRL WIL Round wear our pink socks to show your support - CUT OFF DATE FOR ORDERS IS 21 APRIL - DON'T MISS OUT!

Hold your own fundraiser, buy a pink scarf for Mother's Day or join us at our annual Ladies Day at the Footy - remember all proceeds go to the Foundation which stays in the St George and Illawarra Areas.

Attached is our information pack showing you how you can be a part of this great cause.

Thank you for your support.
From the Team at Crystal Bears & Dragons Women in League

Petero Civoniceva to join CRL Holiday Camp

The CRL Holiday Camp that will be held at the Scott's Head Youth Centre between the 22nd and 24th April will also be hosting a Special Skills Day and Nines Competition for all Group 2 Junior Rugby League U/15s Players.

A High Quality NRL Coaching and Development Staff including NRL Legend and Current NRL Ambassador Petero Civoniceva will oversee a Specific Skills Program and Nines Competition for the local Group 2 Junior Rugby League.

The Skills Day and Nines Competition is specifically aimed at assisting the U/15s Players involved in the Group 2 JRL and working out a suitable competition format for the up-coming season.

Country boy excels on and off the field

On Friday 13 December 2013, Ben Creagh graduated from University, having completed his Bachelor of Commerce in Finance at the University of Wollongong.

Ben was the first graduate from the Graduates of League program.

NRL Graduates of League is a peer and academic support program for contracted NRL, NYC and State Cup players attending university.

The program has reduced failure rates from 40% in 2011 to 8% in 2013 and player numbers attending university across the NRL have grown from 68 in 2008 to 220 in 2014.

NRL Graduates of League was first piloted at the University of Wollongong and the St George Illawarra Dragons in 2011 and it's success has seen it grow to support players at all 16 NRL clubs across 18 university and higher education partners in Australia and New Zealand in 2014.

Ben is actually a Co-Founder of this program. This program was developed to assist NRL and Holden Cup under 20s players get a balance in their lives whilst achieving on and off the field.

This is a fantastic achievement for the proud Country boy.

Ben has managed to achieve this honour along with -

· Playing elite sport in the NRL competition

· Captaining the St George Illawarra Dragons

· Winning the NRL Premiership in 2010

· Representing NSW Country

· Representing Australia

· Representing New South Wales

Castlereagh League Knockout

After a couple of lean years by their lofty standards the Coonamble Bears signalled that they will once again be a force in the Castlereagh League competition when they claimed the Castlereagh League knockout shield with a narrow and exciting victory over the Gulgong Terriers in the final.

Based on what they saw throughout the action packed day most of the healthy crowd that left the well presented Allan Burns Oval in Trangie were of the opinion that the 2014 competition is shaping as one of the closest on record.

The Trangie Magpies gave their band of supporter's reason for hope when they went through the preliminaries undefeated collecting the prized scalp of the reigning premiers, the Gilgandra Panthers, along the way.

They met their match when they came up against an enthusiastic Gulgong outfit in a semi-final but certainly the Maggies look to have put together a competitive unit.

For many pundits the Terriers were the surprise packet on the day, but true to their name they put in some dogged displays, this being particularly so in the final when at one stage they were staring at a heavy defeat before roaring back into the game with three rapid fire tries before eventually going down 18 to 16 to the Bears in a thriller.

At the back end of the final the Bears appeared to be running out of steam due to having played a torrid and intense semi-final against the Warren Bulldogs just prior to running on for the last game of the day, but they managed to hold on to claim the silverware.

The knockout was hailed to be a great day of football with the Trangie club winning much praise for their wonderful contribution in staging the event.

Scores
Preliminary rounds

Trangie 6 defeated Gilgandra 4

Dunedoo 8 defeated Warren 0

Coonamble 10 defeated Gulgong 4

Trangie 12 defeated Coolah 0

Warren 12 defeated Gilgandra 6

Gulgong 16 defeated Dunedoo 4

Coonamble 18 defeated Coolah 6

Semi finals

Gulgong 14 defeated Trangie 0

Coonamble 12 defeated Warren 10

Photo Courtesy:- Mel Gleeson

Final

Coonamble 18 (Jake Lane, Aaron Brad Pickering, Barry Murray tries, Aaron West 3 goals) defeated Gulgong 16 (Cal Rumming, Sam Rawlinson, James Clift tries, Brad James 2 goals)

Previous issues of the Bush Telegraph can be viewed over at the CRL website!