WE might have to had to wait longer than usual for rugby union action in Bathurst this year due to COVID-19, but once the season kicked off there were still a host of highlights.
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Here's an A to Z look at what went down in 2020.
THE Australian women's rugby seven squad, which includes Bathurst talent Jakiya Whitfeld - held a training session at Walmer Park.
Coach John Manenti felt it was a good way to refresh his players and also inspire emerging talents within the Central West.
"We are well aware of the talent here, we are looking to have as many opportunities as possible to include those girls as without the AON University comp this year we've probably missed a bit of a window to see some of those girls in a capacity against other top flight players," Manenti said.
"But I know the Sydney universities are starting to look at the girls here, Sydney Uni, UTS, they are looking at bringing in some girls from the Central West to top them up. So there will be pathways into those university sides.
"If we can unearth a few more Jakiyas and Lilly's [Lillyann Mason-Spice] and those sorts of girls, it's going to be fantastic for both the area - it will give the young girls something to aspire to and show there's a pathway to aspire to - but rugby in Australia.
BRYDIE Comiskey's first season as a Bathurst Bulldog will be one she remembers for a long time. She scored the winning try in the Ferguson Cup grand final against hot favourites Dubbo Kangaroos.
"Oh my god, we won, yay," she said of her reaction when the siren sounded and declared Bulldogs 17-12 victors.
"I didn't expect to win like that, I thought it would be close, but not like that. The Doggies did a good job. I am proud of the girls for doing such a good job."
When flyhalf Teagan Miller delivered her the ball late in the grand final, Comiskey backed herself to apply the finishing touches.
"It just kind of happened, I never expected it to happen but it was definitely a proud moment," she said, her try handing Dubbo its first defeat of the season.
"I didn't think the ball was going to come over to the right, but she just made a last minute split decision - good on Teag's for doing that.
"I could have passed it wide but I thought 'Nah I'm going for it', I just put it down, I had the space and I went for it."
THE had to fight hard, but the CSU women took out this year's North Cup premiership with a 29-17 win over the Mudgee Wombats.
There was only two points in it during the second quarter, but the Mustards lifted after the long break.
Coach Daniel Adamson said the major factor in CSU's win was perfectly replicating the plays they had worked on in training through the week.
"Mudgee put up probably the hardest game that we've played all season. The thing that separates this win from all the others this year was that we scored all our points off plays - something I don't think we've done before this," he said.
"For us we worked pretty hard at training on a couple of those Hollywood plays. We knew we had to come up with a couple of those plays for the grand final and they all came off."
THE Bathurst Bulldogs and Dubbo Kangaroos have a long rivalry and another chapter was added on grand final day in 2020.
Bulldogs' women's, second and third grade teams all upset Roos teams which were undefeated minor premiers in their divisions and hot title favourites.
Bulldogs club captain Kurt Weekes was surprised to be playing Roos - who's rivalry with Bathurst extends more than 50 years - in each of those deciders.
"Playing Dubbo in all the grand finals, it's not something we are not used to, usually we run into Emus somewhere. But Dubbo have played well all year and have been the top in all those grades," Weekes said.
BATHURST Bulldogs first XV might have gotten the better of Orange Emus in 2019, but this year the greens ended their campaign.
The defending premiers went down 26-20 to their fierce rivals in the semi-final.
In the dying seconds it looked as though Bulldogs were a carry or two away from crashing over to snatch the win, but they gave away a penalty in possession of the ball, rendering the match complete.
BATHURST Bulldogs became the first club in the history of Central West Rugby Union to win four consecutive women's premierships. They upset the previously undefeated Dubbo Kangaroos 17-12 in the decider.
Dogs skipper Ali Stanford said it had been a "bloody tough game".
"We knew we had to switch on and couldn't start with the handbrake on. We had to go out there and play rugby and play it quick," she said.
"We couldn't start on the back foot because we knew they'd pump us.
"Credit to the Dubbo girls, they've got some muscle, they've got a great team and a great structure and are a great bunch of girls."
THE young Bathurst Bulldogs enjoyed the chance to play at the Central West Junior Rugby Union gala day at Ashwood Park.
The club implemented a new system which saw organisers altering the length of games, meaning less people spent time at the ground to comply with COVID-19 safety measures.
"We went from three games of half an hour, with two 13 minutes halves, to having two 40 minutes games with 18 minute halves," Bathurst Bulldogs junior president Mike Curtin said.
TOM Hooper had a year he won't soon forget - he was given 20 minutes off the bench for the Australian XV outfit which took on Argentina and picked in the ACT Brumbies' Super Rugby squad.
"For Argentina, it was their national team, they were missing 13 players who were their European players coming back from France and Italy ... but they still had Tomas Cubelli and [Emiliano] Boffelli, like some of their best players, it was a good experience to verse them," he said.
"For us it was basically the reserve members of the Wallabies squad, they made up most of the starting 15 and some of the bench players, and then most of the bench were aspiring Super Rugby players or guys on contract that don't necessarily have a wealth of Super Rugby experience.
"There was one guy from Melbourne, myself and another Brumbies player and then five guys from Waratahs. It was good experience for us bench guys to get 20 minutes or so."
THEY did not have the experience of some of their old Bathurst Bulldogs team-mates, but players like 2019 colts Thomas Felsch and Zac Taylor knew how to inspire them with their performances.
They were smaller than many of the forwards they faced, but their aggression meant they did not back away from any challenge.
"A lot of keen, young blokes have come in and they've probably been the best of us," Fitzsimmons, a player with more than 100 first grade games to his credit, said.
"They've been great, especially on our flanks. They've come in and they've been hungry and we need to follow them really.
"They're the ones putting the big hits in, they're the ones working hard and us old fellas need to get behind them."
J IS FOR JORJA
IT was Jorja Verway who had the honour of captaining the premiership winning CSU outfit this season.
Her side lost just one match on its way to winning the university's first Central West women's title since 2011, beating the Mudgee Wombats 29-17 in the decider.
THE kids are coming - the future looks bright given the talent in the under 17 Central West side which placed third at the NSWRU Under 17s 7s State Youth Championships.
Central West - which had a team featuring 11 St Stanislaus' College students and one Scots All Saints College student - were defeated by both grand finalists at different stages of the tournament but they were narrow.
"It was outstanding, considering the opposition we had," manager Tony Challita said.
"To finish third in the state and not only push the two grand finalists in our pool games. We only lost two games all weekend, one against Penrith, the eventual winners, and one against Norths, who were in the grand final. Both games could've went either way."
LACHIE Allman drove a last-minute try across the line to give the Bathurst Bulldogs a shock 15-8 win over Dubbo Kangaroos in the third grade grand final.
The Roos had three tries disallowed in the back end of the second half and kept turning the ball over with penalties.
But Bulldogs held on and as the game ticked towards full-time, they hammered the left edge. Bathurst then swung it wide to Allman and the rest - as they say - was history.
Bulldogs skipper Tom Fitzsimons said the win felt "real good".
"Especially with a man down we thought they were going to go over but all the boys lifted and we go it done," he said.
"The intensity and everyone lifted for each other and really didn't want to lose."
BULLDOGS star Melissa Waterford led the Central West side into battle against Sydney University in a curtain raiser to the Super W match between the NSW Waratahs and RugbyWA.
"It's very exciting to play when you get to show what girls from the Central West are capable of doing, especially in Sydney when you will be watched by people who have been around rugby for a long time," she said.
"It gives us a chance to show the level of professionalism we have out here and gives those girls a chance to be seen by people who they'd not gotten the opportunity to be seen by before - we want to show we have a lot of talent here in the Central West.
"It's exciting to see how far we've come from when we first started. There's a real pride when you put on that jumper, it's a real honour to play for the Central West."
A NSW Country side including Bulldogs duo Marita Shoulders and Mel Waterford claimed the Chikarovski Cup at Ashwood Park.
Country swept all before them, finishing things off with an emphatic 39-7 win over Sydney Gold in Bathurst.
Together with Dubbo's Kim Fyfe, Panuara-born Wallaroos captain Grace Hamilton and a host of Australia representative talent, the Bulldogs players gave Country their first taste of cup success.
"It's the first time I've won a cup with the Country team and to be able to do it at Bathurst, on my home ground, is something I'll treasure for a long time," Waterford said.
"One of our big things was communication, line speed and aggression off the ball.
"We've got some young girls coming through in this team who you will see in a Waratahs or a Wallaroos jumper. There are girls already playing at Wallaroo level and it's amazing to be around a team with that level of players."
AUSTRALIAN rules convert Olivia Flood was one of the new faces in CSU's forward pack this season and she proved a fierce competitor.
Last season she was a member of the Bathurst Giants side which won the AFL Central West women's premiership and that served her well.
"She's never played rugby before ever, but she's very eager to learn. She comes from an AFL background and I think that helps. That ability to hit the line and continue through is quite hard to teach and I said to her that she has a real knack for it," CSU coach Daniel Adamson said.
"I think it helps having that AFL background because when they get tackled, when they get hit, it's important to work through it and get out of it really quick. She also does a lot of crossfit gym work and you can tell, she's just so powerful."
NICK Plunkett did not have the easiest of seasons skippering CSU, but he was one of their consistently best performed players.
He and his men were able to finish the season on a high note when coming from nine points down to beat finals-bound Mudgee 25-24.
"Even before the game started we had a bit of confidence, though we weren't sure why. We scored first through the forward and you could tell Mudgee was caught off guard," he said.
"There's still going to be a good core group around next year. I think the atmosphere at the club will lift a lot after that final round win and while I won't be there to play I'm really interested to see how they go."
Q IS FOR QR CODE
CLUBS had to implement a host of COVID-19 safety measures this season, including scanning into grounds on game day with a QR code.
GREG Reid's successful three-year tenure as Bathurst Bulldogs president ended as he handed over the top job at the club to Phil Newton after season 2020 concluded.
A move that was "a long time in the works", Reid stepped back from the job due to work commitments but will leave the role feeling fulfilled and proud of the culture which has developed at the club.
He's got a lot of positives memories to look back on over the past three years, a tenure which began when the long serving John Maynard stepped down.
"It was my proudest time at the club post-John Maynard, which were big shoes to fill. Some of the proudest things for me in that time were nine premierships in that time, with the jewel in the crown being able to host and win the first grade premiership at Ashwood," he said.
"That's something John and I had the ambition of doing. It was a massive crowd and a fantastic day. Seeing the new lights, infrastructure, scoreboard and canteen installed was great.
"I'll still be involved. I've been on the club committee for around 23 years now. Phil's a club stalwart, a good friend of mine who coached the women to a premiership last year, and this change is something we've talked about for a long time and the handover has already started."
MARITA Shoulders was named best on ground in a grand final for the third time as she helped Bathurst Bulldogs to a fourth consecutive premiership.
Her performance included a show and go followed by a 60 metre run down the left flank.
"When I played for Mudgee against Cowra I got it [best on field] from the losing team and then I got it the year after against Cowra. The game against CSU it didn't get awarded and last year Jakiya [Whitfeld] got it," Shoulders said.
"It was one of the best games of rugby I've played out here.
"It was a very clinical game to begin with, it was just so clean. Especially from our end it was like ball down, over the ball, ball out, it was just clean phase rugby, couple of forward hit-ups then out to the backs.
"It got a bit messy there at points, but yeah, it was one of the best games of rugby I've been involved in."
T IS FOR TREBLE
THEY weren't the favourites in any of them, but Bathurst Bulldogs won three Central West Rugby Union grand finals this season. The women beat Dubbo Kangaroos 17-12 and against the same club third grade won 15-8, and second grade enjoyed a 17-14 triumph.
BROTHERS Jarrad and Lachlan Conyers were part of an undefeated premiership winning side in 2020.
The brothers played alongside each other in the University of Wollongong Mallee Bulls outfit which won their Illawarra District Rugby Union second grade crown in first-past-the-post fashion.
THE Tuggeranong Vikings had a strong Bathurst presence with Tom Hooper, Jed Englert, Harper Kemp and Hunter Davis all part of the club. Hooper was voted joint players' player in first grade.
ALEX Weal scored the winning try for the Bulldogs in the second grade decider, the Bathurst outfit upsetting premiership favourites Dubbo Kangaroos 17-14. His decisive try in the 65th minute came with a touch of luck.
"I got whacked by one of their boys and it helped me over a bit," he said.
MARDI Watts signed up to play for the Bathurst Bulldogs this season and she certainly added an X-factor to their Ferguson Cup outfit.
The former Warringah player scored a bagful of tries for Bulldogs with her speed, evasive running and strength to break tackles impressive to witness.
PADDY Phillips was the recipient of this year's Bathurst Junior Rugby Club President's Shield - confirming his status as a young gun.
The annual award is given to an under 11s player who is willing to play whatever position the coach needs from them, is there to lend a hand with off-field duties and always displays outstanding sportsmanship.
Z IS FOR ZOO
UNIVERSITY Oval - aka 'the Zoo'. While CSU's home ground was not quite the fortress it has been in past seasons and COVID-19 kept spectator numbers low, the venue still had great atmosphere.
