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 supporters 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. They eventually went 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 : Gilgandra 4

Dunedoo 8 : Warren 0

Coonamble 10 : Gulgong 4

Trangie 12 : Coolah 0

Warren 12 : Gilgandra 6

Gulgong 16 : Dunedoo 4

Coonamble 18 : Coolah 6

Semi finals

Gulgong 14 : Trangie 0

Coonamble 12 : Warren 10

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).