Panorama Platypi opens are Western Women's Rugby League minor premiers for the first time

Heading into the final round of the regular season, the Kevin Grimshaw coached Platypi had already ensured themselves of a top-two finish - it was just a matter of which spot they filled.

While they lost Saturday's match 32-20 to Castlereagh, the Goannas upset Woodbridge 22-16 on Sunday which left the Platypi in top spot.

It means they will host a semi-final against the Goannas at Oberon this coming weekend, with Woodbridge and Castlereagh doing battle in the other.

Grimshaw was not overly concerned about the loss against Castlereagh given the Platypi went into the final round game without Claudia McLaren, Jacinta Windsor, Marita Shoulders and Nicole Schneider.

In fact he saw a number of positives his squad can take into the semis.

"We just hit a bit of a speed hump but that's alright, it's still good, no dramas with it," Grimshaw said.

"I think it will give some individuals some confidence, it is probably a strange thing to say, but I mixed and matched a little bit and played some of them in different positions and a couple of girls excelled.

"It's given me a bit of an idea now of what I can do for the semi-finals. I don't know if I will end up doing it, but it's given me confidence and it's also given some of the girls confidence as well."

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One of the players who was tried in a new position was Xanthe Booth, one of the recruits from the Bathurst Bulldogs' rugby union side.

"I shifted a winger into hooker and she did really well, Xanthe Booth. She went really well and enjoyed it too after being on the wing and then coming into the middle, she's not a big girl but she handled it," Grimshaw said.

"She wasn't afraid to run and get out of dummy half.

"It frees up Zarlia [Griffiths] a bit, I've had Zarlia playing hooker and she's usually just catch-passing at dummy half, whereas when I put her into the halves she took control of the game. She's got a very clever head on her."

The other player who impressed the coach once more was soccer convert Poorsha McPhillamy.

"She's killing it she is. She's playing in the second row, she's not very big but goes really hard," he said.

"She's been really impressive as a girl that hasn't played footy before."

The Platypi raced out to a 10-0 lead in the match at Gulargambone, but the hosts fought back after Panorama handling errors gifted them possession.

"They've got some good players, they've got a couple from Mudgee with them. Their captain was Channy Burgess and she's goes good, she's a hard sort of girl," Grimshaw said.

"I thought we were cruising, but then we started to turn a bit of ball over and once you turn ball over to a side like that, they wear you down.

"I think they scored three tries from dummy half. They're a fair side and we couldn't control them. They grind away at you, because of their size it takes two and three girls to tackle them every single time and it's a fight as well to get them on the ground."

While Castlereagh went on to win the match, Grimshaw could not fault the effort of his players.

"Full credit to the girls, it was a 200 kay round trip, we could've went to Brisbane and watched the footy up there," Grimshaw laughed.

"But they did not give up, they did a good job. It was a loss but they learned they could push through a bit of a barrier, they were tired and we only had a couple of subs, we only had one in the end, but they kept going."

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