A CENTRAL West side dominated by Bathurst talents claimed the under 13 NSW Country Championship at Lismore, finishing joint winners with Hunter after a nail-biting draw in the final last weekend.

Central West led for all but the last five minutes of the decider, but one defensive lapse allowed Hunter to draw level at 15-all.

As such, you could be forgiven for thinking the Baby Bulls would be disappointed having to share their spoils.

But, considering they had to recover from a second round hammering at the hands of the Novocastrian side to even qualify for the decider, Central West co-coach Bruce Morrison – who mentored the side along with Bathurst’s Shane Cantrill – said it was the exact opposite for his troops.

“The boys are rapt with it. Being runners-up last year then joint title winners ... who knows? We might get there by ourselves next year,” Morrison laughed.

“We’re as chuffed as we possibly could be as coaches. We’re very proud of the effort, especially when we had to regroup after that first loss to Hunter, and with the way the guys stood up after we copped a couple of injuries.

“There were guys playing out of position, but they got the job done.”

The Bathurst contingent in the young side was made up of Liam Mackey, Emmett Miller, Ollie Kemp, Henry Palmer, Bailey Warren, Sam Cantrill, captain Dylan Challita and Denzil Begley.

Begley scored early for Central West in the decider and that was followed by a five-pointer to Orange’s Aiden Fraser, giving the Baby Bulls a 10-0 lead. 

Things started to get tight from that point  before Central West took a 15-10 lead into the final stages of the match.

Hunter finally locked up the scores with a try in the corner to snatch a split result.

Prior to that, the Baby Bulls kicked off their campaign with a 45-14 win over Far North Coast before being beaten comfortably by Hunter 31-10.

“We regrouped after that loss, had a chat about where we went wrong. We knew we could beat Central Coast the next morning, which would set us up against Hunter again,” Morrison said.

They did that, accounting for Central Coast 22-0, before ambushing the much bigger Hunter side from the word go in the decider to lead at half-time and then the majority of the second period.

But, one error defensively let Hunter score in the dying stages and steal a draw.

While no NSW Country side is named for their age group, two Bathurst players in older age divisions did enough to earn further representative honours.

Saint Stanislaus’ College talent Reece Sweeting was named in the under 14 NSW Country side after helping Central West to place sixth in Lismore, while Bathurst Bulldog Felix Quinn has been picked in the under 17s Cockatoos squad.