By Gary Holmes

Last Saturday at Lawson Oval the Grenfell Girlannas League Tag team confirmed their Semi-Final spot with a 20-10 victory over the Trundle Boomers.

The Grenfell girls have been improving with every game this season and in the last six matches they have come up with four wins and a draw.

This Sunday at Oberon they will be in for a tough sudden death contest against the Canowindra Tigers in a match starting at 12.40pm.

Grenfell will have to do it without Sophie Berry and Zoe Gavin who are both out with injury and who have both been key performers for much of the season.

The final game of the competition proper was a big day on and off the field for the Goannas with the holding of their inaugural Old Boys Day and annual Reverse Draw fundraiser.

Although the weather gods did us no favours over 40 old boys showed up and they joined the large crowd in attendance and later that evening a well-supported and successful Reverse Draw was held at the Bowling Club.

There was plenty of preparation put into making these events a success and many helpers who helped out on the day but special mention needs to be made of a couple of families on the committee who really drove these events and the rest of the club wants to give them a big thanks.

Jai Purdie on Saturday was proud to wear a retro Goannas jumper that had Dykhoffs Bakery emblazoned on it as a sponsor. This was a business owned and operated by his grandparents Jack & Bernadette Dykhoff who were long term Goannas sponsors and volunteers.

Jai certainly did the jumper proud when he was awarded the Eppelstun Medal as best on ground for Grenfell.

This is the first occasion the medal has been awarded and it will continue to be part of future Old Boys Days.

It didn’t stop there for Jai as he picked up the maximum best and fairest points as well as the Player’s Player and to top things off he took out the $2000 first prize in the Reverse Draw.

LEAGUE TAG

As alluded to above the Girlannas completed a crucial 20-10 victory over Trundle after leading 14 nil at half-time.

The win was even more meritorious when you consider that Trundle have been in good form all season and that they were also desperate to win to consolidate their semi-final spot.

Best for the locals were Player’s Player Marley Loader, Faith Smith, Chelsea Harveyson, Emily Brenner, Breanna Anderson, and Heather Walker.

Grenfell’s points came from tries to Marley Loader, Heather Walker, Emily Brenner, and Faith Smith with Emily also knocking over two conversions.

Julie Hughes picked up the $390 first try-scorer prize.

FIRST GRADE

The season came to an end for the Goannas last Saturday at Lawson Oval when they went down by 52-20 to the Trundle Boomers.

This match mirrored many of the games that the Goannas have played this season where they have been able to compete for periods and then their defence falls away and they concede a batch of tries.

An example of this on Saturday was that they were down 10-4 after 33 minutes of play but went to the break behind by 28-4. But to their credit and as per most of the season they kept trying and they only lost the second half 24-16 after conceding a converted try in the final minutes of the game.

Jai Purdie had a big game and picked up the Player’s Player and he was well supported by Isaac Jones, Caleb Haddin, Jaxon Greenaway, and Simon Samson.

Brodie Loader, Charlie Frendo, Jai Purdie, and Mitchell Stevens were the try-scorers whilst Chase McFarlane kicked two conversions.

Dylan Troy picked up his second first try-scorer prize of $820 for the season.

YOUTH LEAGUE

The young Goannas who have struggled for numbers all season unfortunately had to forfeit their final match of the year to the Orange United Warriors. Their season is now over and they can look forward to the off-season and then 2026.