Bathurst Panthers go down to Dubbo CYMS in Western Under 21s preliminary final

Bathurst Panthers were bested by hosts Dubbo CYMS 28-0 in Sunday evening's preliminary final at Barden Park, missing the chance to meet with cross-city rivals St Pat's in the decider.

Panthers were missing several key players for the game but showed resilience against a classy CYMS squad, who locked in a repeat of last season's under 21s grand final matchup with the win.

Effort on both ends of the ball wasn't something lacking among the Panthers ranks according to coach Ben Gunn.

"The score didn't reflect the effort that the boys put in. We went into half-time down 12 and we were probably unlucky not to be on the scoreboard at that point," he said.

"A bit of execution towards the end of that half let us down but it was a gallant effort from the boys. We only ended up with one person on the bench so it was a huge effort, and it only blew out towards the end over the last five to six minutes.

"They kept showing up. It was just a bit of fatigue by the end of it."

Panthers only had a three-man bench for the trip to Dubbo and that was soon whittled down to just a single player at one stage.

"We weren't able to get a rotation going in the middle but that's no excuse," Gunn said.

"We played great football for 40 minutes, it was just the back 20 minutes where the errors came in. We had a big downpour of rain and that made things heavier on the legs as well."

Panthers split the wins and losses evenly over their four matches in the 21s competition.

Over that time Gunn said, regardless of result, the team took away plenty from each game and they'll be sure to apply it into the winter season ahead.

"I'm a big advocate for this competition and it was a great move from NSW Rugby League. It's served its purpose well for Panthers," he said.

"We've got a great bunch of young men that are going to come through into the senior ranks, and there's probably 10 blokes there who two to three years down the track could make up a core for your first grade side, and they're all locals.

"Then there's a group of our guys who are still under 18s players and they stood up well. They'll bring that momentum into their regular season and they'll be more than competitive in that combined competition."

Gunn believes the future looks bright for the club based on the way his team committed to the pre-season challenge.

"There's some first grade boys after these four weeks of the 21s competition that might be a little nervous," he laughed.

"There's a good half a dozen of the 21s boys who a fortnight ago played a game and then backed up for a first grade trial. They did it very comfortably too, and it's creating healthy competition in the club."

Pat's will host the upcoming grand final at Jack Arrow Oval on March 18.

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