RUGBY LEAGUE
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IT won’t be as black and white as a selection trial, but there will be some Bathurst Panthers players hoping to secure a spot in the club’s Group 10 premier league side for next year when they meet Oberon tomorrow.
The Panthers team cannot make the semi-finals and only have matches with the Tigers, Lithgow and Orange Hawks remaining before their frustrating season comes to an end.
Against the winless Oberon side Panthers can post their fourth win of the competition and will start deserved favourites. But they aren’t taking anything for granted.
“The trip out there is never easy, they got the better of us the first time we played them last year and even in our first game with them this season [28-16 win,] we took a while to really get on top of them at Carrington Park,” Panthers manager Danny Dwyer said.
“They have a lot to play for and will be throwing everything at us to try and get a win.”
The Panthers team for next year is far from set in stone though it is confirmed that player-coach Todd Barrow, out for the season with injury as far as playing goes, will return for another campaign.
Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill is the only certainty not to be there in 2016 due to a shoulder reconstruction.
Dwyer said that there are some spots up for grabs and what happens in the next three weeks could play a part in determining who they go to.
“That is a pretty fair call, there will be a couple of spots to fill,” he said.
“The obvious one is that of Sandon at fullback, he won’t be available. Hopefully the bulk of the squad will be keen to come back because we think that with the players we have and a year of playing together, we will get better.
“Todd not being there has had an impact in the second row, and not getting ‘Oscar’ [Osea Sadrau] back from Fiji has had an impact on our prop rotation. We’ve basically been playing second rowers in the front row when Greg Behan or Brent Seager go off.
“They are a couple of areas we need to fix.”
The likely replacement for Gibbs-O’Neill in the custodian role could be in-form five-eighth Jeremy Gordon.
Gordon has been arguably the team’s best player outside of Behan and Jake Betts and has had a huge influence in the halves. But much of his football has been played in the number one jersey, He could be the ideal replacement.
However, that would depend largely on the availability of another half.
For this week, Bradyn Cassidy will get his chance to audition at fullback with Gibbs-O’Neill given a makeshift role at hooker.
Trent Hotham had been playing the role in the absence of injured rake Luke Carpenter.
But given that he has qualified for the finals-bound first division side and that their playmaker Matt Woolmington is no longer available, Hotham has been moved back into the reserve team to try and guide them to a title.
Tomorrow’s match starts at 2.30pm.
BATHURST PANTHERS: 1 Bradyn Cassidy, 2 Chris Shephard, 3 Blake Lawson, 4 Jay McClintock, 5 Callum Young, 6 Jeremy Gordon, 7 Joey Bugg, 8 Brent Seager, 9 Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill, 10 Greg Behan, 11 Max Wolfson, 12 Ben Gunn, 13 Jake Betts, 14 Jarrod Seager, 15 Jed Betts, 16 Josh Rivett, 17 Tyson Chapple.