Woodbridge Cup corner: Youth league issues and league tag power rankings

Each week, we'll discuss the big talking points, which clubs are rising, which look like cellar dwellers and everything in-between. This edition will look at round two.

The slow demise of bush footy in our junior ranks isn't a new story, in fact, it's one of the biggest issues impacting Central West towns right now.

We've seen it in the Peter McDonald Premiership, where the Wellington Cowboys were unable to field an under 18s side for 2023 and in rugby union's Blowes Cup, where the colts competition appears to have been reduced to just three teams.

That's why it was so disappointing, but not at all surprising, to see that the Woodbridge Cup youth league comp consisted of just five teams - down from six in 2022 - after Eugowra were unable to gather up the bodies to field a side.

Golden Eagles president Casey Jones said it was a tough decision to make.

"A lot of it came down to numbers," he said.

"We had the coach ready, John Dietrich. He put in a lot of effort to build a core base and rally the troops."

With a small population, even for Woodbridge standards, combined with the effects of the 2022 floods still hanging over their heads, it was no surprise that all in all, the club only had four local juniors rock up to pre-season training, with the rest being made up from Forbes youngsters.

"Being a juniors side, travel was hard for the young fellas," Jones added.

"Numbers started to dwindle at training so we had a look at the ones who were turning up and their age. We put it to them if they would like to step up to our men's side as it was looking highly unlikely we would get a solid number to comfortably form.

"They agreed and looked really excited to be given the opportunity to play with the Eagles under Ricky's guidance. John is an Eagle himself and has thrown himself into the club in other areas to help us out."

This leaves just Molong, Cargo, Grenfell, Canowindra and Condobolin to play in the youth league competition.

While Eugowra's absence from the league is obviously disappointing, what we should be looking at is the bigger picture where the majority of Woodbridge sides aren't fielding youth league teams.

This isn't going to change any time soon, but it's something we should all be keeping an eye on, as without juniors, the senior competitions will soon be the ones to suffer.

It's still very early days, but we've already got a strong contender for photo of the year from the weekend's Rhinos v Blue Heelers clash.

The 'couch grandstand' as some have dubbed it, is a timeless tradition among Aussie sporting grounds and was well and truly alive in Manildra on Sunday.

I still remember rocking up to a senior cricket game as a 14-year-old, to be met with three of my teammates (bowlers of course) rugged up on the couch in the back of the ute, waiting for the rest of the team to bat.

I take great delight in seeing the tradition is still going strong. If you think you've got a more innovative way to watch the footy, feel free to get in touch by emailing riley.krause@austcommunitymedia.com.au

It's still early days in the season, but a few league tag teams have already started to emerge as competition contenders.

You have the obvious Grenfell and Manildra sides - who are both two wins from two matches to start their seasons - but a new contender could be coming out of Molong.

The Bulls finished a respectable sixth in 2022, a run that included a week one finals victory over Oberon.

Based on their opening matches of this year's campaign, they may take a fair bit of beating.

They went down to the Rhinettes 20-14 in round one and gritted out an 8-0 win against Canowindra over the weekend. Their upcoming game against Trundle should help prove if they are truly a team to beat, or if they will once again be duking it out in the middle of the ladder.

Each week we will take a look at which teams have been lighting up the first grade and league tag competitions, alternating between the two.

For those unfamiliar with a power ranking ladder, it's similar to your conventional standings, except it's completely subjective and based on who we think is in the best form, regardless of their points total.

So, our week two power rankings for league tag are as follows (along with their round two results). Stay tuned next week for our updated first grade power rankings.

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