Woodbridge Cup Corner: Historic crowd as epic grand finals held in Manildra

"Bush footy, how good."

Jack Huxley Oval on Sunday (August 27) was everything you wanted and more from a country rugby league grand final.

Big crowd, great weather and three games going right down to the wire.

Manildra was a sea of red and white with plenty of decorations adorning houses and fences on the way into the ground.

But the numerous home supporters were matched by vocal travelling contingents from Trundle, Canowindra, Cargo and Molong.

On Monday, Woodbridge Cup boss Andrew Pull confirmed the 2341-strong crowd was the second highest in history.

The 2018 decider, also in Manildra, remains the largest at 2412 and the third was Canowindra in 2016.

Pull said it was an "amazing" day.

"It's what Woodbridge Cup is all about, communities and family," he said.

"The amount of kids and the festival-type atmosphere was pretty amazing."

Manildra and Trundle are no strangers to the grand final stage. They met in the 2018 and 2019 deciders, both ending in victories to the Boomers.

The Rhinos' 18-16 win on Sunday would undoubtedly have been satisfying for players from those two campaigns.

Trundle almost made it a hat-trick of triumphs, coming back from 18-6 down to fall short in the dying seconds.

Manildra halfback Will Petrie said it was a satisfying day out for the proud club.

"I know how much it meant to the boys to try and get one back over Trundle because of what happened in the past," he said.

"It was good for them to get that done.

"It's always unreal out here. The home supporters just go off plus having everyone else here.

"It was a massive crowd and such a good day for it. It was unreal."

If the first grade match-up was story line gold then it was certainly matched by the league tag.

Manildra and Cargo played out a tense grand final with the first try not coming until the second half.

Despite Cargo's persistence the Rhinettes held on to go one better than their 2022 runners-up finish.

In our opinion both would have been worthy winners for the amazing seasons they had.

We finish this final column with a look to the future provided by the under 18s grand final.

Molong went back to back after an unbeaten season and with the likes of Bailey Peschka stepping up to first grade next year, the future looks bright for the Bulls club after only returning in 2019.

Canowindra Tigers also deserve the final word for a great finals run and matching it with the invincible Bulls team for the full 60 minutes.

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