St Pat's are ready for a Western Challenge

A HOST of teams from across the Central West will get an early taste of league tag action tomorrow when the annual Western Challenge Carnival is held in Canowindra.

It will be the third time the town has hosted the event after Parkes and Bathurst staged the two initial versions.

The inaugural event in 2011 attracted six teams and was taken out by the hosts, who play in the Woodbridge Cup. That was also the first major competition in the area to stage a league tag premiership.

St Pat's won the 2012 event and will be the sole Bathurst representatives in attendance this year with Panthers opting not to enter a side.

In 2013 Orange Hawks claimed the trophy with their arch-rivals Orange CYMS winning last year.

Tournament convenor Andrew Pull can't wait to watch 13 teams do battle for pre-season bragging rights this year, with entries coming from Group 10, Group 11 and Woodbridge Cup.

"It's extremely exciting to see just how far league tag has come in such a short time," he said.

"We [Woodbridge Cup] were the first region to get a competition started, we were all one-team towns at that stage, so we wanted to get something going to back up the men's side. Since then we've established a league tag and under 18s competition as well.

"I guess there was less pressure on Group 10 and Group 11 to do the same because they already had three grades, but they've all gotten on board with their own competitions as well now and it is huge.

"The skill level has improved 1000 per cent and across all competitions, you're starting to see people turning up especially to watch the league tag before the rest of the games begin."

Coming off their runners-up finish in the Group 10 competition last year, St Pat's will be keen to kick off 2015 by claiming some silverware. However, Pull said that will not be an easy task with some strong challengers taking part.

"It is hard to pick a winner, but I like Lithgow as a bit of an outside along with Orange CYMS, Eugowra and Dubbo Westside," he said.

"St Pat's are usually tough to beat, but they also have a habit of not having their full squad available this early. That would be the only thing keeping them out of that group as well.

"We had 12 entries to begin with, but we got a late submission from the Condobolin Rams who are the reigning premiers in Woodbridge Cup and we were happy enough for them to come into the equation, they'll slot into pool B."

St Pat's are in pool C along with the Trundle Boomers and the Eugowra Golden Eagles.

Other sides include Grenfell, Forbes, Blayney, Cargo and the hosts themselves.

Pat's kick off their tournament with a clash against Trundle at 11am before meeting Eugowra at 1pm.