Central West Rugby Union’s Westfund Ferguson Cup title race looks wide open heading into this weekend’s last regular season round, especially considering the competition will move to a top seven for finals rather than a top four.
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The move has been in the works for some time but was officially confirmed late last week and it leaves eight of the competition’s 11 teams still in contention for a post-season berth, making this weekend’s final round of games a zesty one.
West Wyalong and CSU Bathurst are still fighting it out for the minor premiership while Bathurst Bulldogs and Orange Emus are locked into third and fourth finishes, with Mudgee, Cootamundra, Cowra and Temora battling it out for the final three spots.
“There was a few reasons for the change but a lot of it was just the fact that in an 11-team competition, we probably needed more than a final four,” Central West CEO Matt Tink said.
“Most of the clubs are really happy with it and it adds a bit more to the competition. The big thing we wanted with this competition was to promote women’s rugby, to do that they need to be playing as much as possible and this is part of that.”
With a top seven – determined purely by the raw ladder despite their being uneven games and byes – that obviously brings an extra week of the post-season into play.
After this weekend the minor premiers will have a week off while second plays seventh, third plays sixth and fourth plays fifth in the qualifying finals, with a venue to be determined.
After that the remaining four sides move into the major and minor semi-finals, with the two highest-ranked sides playing in the former and the two lowest in the latter.
“That second week of semi-finals and then the preliminary and grand finals will all line-up with the men’s top tier, the Blowes Clothing Cup,” Tink explained.
“Standings are just determined on the ladder by itself. There was a number of formulas we looked at but they all impacted a lot of sides and while this method isn’t perfect it’s the best way forward for the competition as a whole.”
On top of that, Tink also explained the Westfund Ferguson Cup will be given more of the spotlight on grand final day too.
“It’s a bit of a change, but as it stands grand final day will be played in the order of colts, third grade, second grade, women’s and then first grade,” he said.
“This competition was never going to be perfect in its first year but I also think it’s been excellent so far and we want to show it off as much as we can, show off the growth and the ability these sides have.
“It’s going to be an exciting end to this competition, and I think it’s only going to get bigger and better in future years.”
In this weekend’s final round Emus face-off with West Wyalong at Forbes while Orange City travels to Bathurst to face Bulldogs.
The greens’ clash with the competition heavyweights is one of two at Grinsted Oval on Saturday, Temora will also try and force its way into the top seven against Dubbo Rhinos at fortress Platypi.
CSU Bathurst faces Cootamundra at University Oval while Harden hosts Cowra.
Mudgee has the bye, and their destiny is in other sides’ hands.
The Wombats are fifth but are just five points in front of eighth-placed Temora. If results fall a certain way – Cootamundra, Cowra and Temora all scoring bonus point wins – then the Wombats can still miss the finals.