As 2022 approached, we could only hope for the opportunity to play out a full season. This was also the first season of the newly formed Peter McDonald Premiership, putting the Group 10 and Group 11 clubs against each other for the first time in regular season football. This new format was adopted in Under 18s and First Grade – however, LeagueTag and Reserve Grade remained as a Group 10 competition.
Our teams finished the season as follows:
- LeagueTag finished second on the Group 10 ladder. They beat minor premiers Bathurst St Pats in the first semi final to qualify for the Grand Final. This was the first time in a long, long time that St Pats had lost a game. Unfortunately for us, they came back a fortnight later with a vengeance and were too good in the Grand Final. Our ladies finished runners up in an impressive season.
- Under 18s had a season which promised so much but delivered so little. We had injuries from the preseason and although we started the year with 25+ players, we struggled to field a consistent team each week. There were a few highlights but ultimately we weren’t good enough for long enough in most of our games. In our first year of the Western competition, we finished 2nd last in the Group 10 division.
- Reserve Grade started the year slowly and came home strongly, improving week-to-week. We thought that we qualified for the finals series following the final round game as we were sitting 4th. However, there was a late protest about the final result of a game 2 weeks prior which was overturned and meant that we were demoted to 5th to just miss out on the finals. We were really happy with the efforts put forward by our squad which never looked like making the finals at the halfway mark of the season.
- First Grade aimed to be the first team to win the Peter McDonald Premiership. It looked positive after 7 games as we sat undefeated at the top of the table. This was mostly without Captain-Coach Daniel Mortimer too as young half Pat Williams slotted in and led his side around. We came 2nd in the Group 10 pool and came up against Dubbo CYMS in the first final. We lost and took on Parkes the next week in Orange, beating them to stay alive. We then took on Forbes at Forbes to qualify for the Grand Final. We led 26-4 at halftime before losing 40-30 in a second half our men would never forget.
This year was a positive change for our club with a new look committee. Our executive committee had a massive overhaul with the newly elected Cam Jones (President), Janene Wood (Secretary), Jenny Munro (Registrar) joining regular faces Fleur Vardenega (Treasurer) and Craig Piper (Vice President). Robbie Mortimer was our Club Captain.
Daniel Mortimer announced he would hang up his boots, retiring at the season’s end. This brought to an end his three year stint as First Grade Captain-Coach of his junior club.