The Parkes Touch Association is putting a call out for committee members, with many significant roles yet to be filled. If the key positions needed are not filled then there will be no Mini Touch, Junior Touch, Senior Men’s and Women’s Touch or Jun­ior Representative Touch this year, which would be a devastating outcome for junior touch footy in Parkes. At present, the only competition secured is the Seniors Mixed Touch.

Renae Smith of Parkes Touch Associa­tion said, “Competition starts in October each year, finishing in early March. Last year, we had increased numbers in par­ticipation across all junior age groups, with approximately 650 junior players and 300 senior players.

“Representative touch football tourna­ments commence in November and run through until Junior State Cup in February.

Last year, we had the Under 10 girls team finish runners up at the Junior State Cup.

“Player numbers are not the issue we are facing – it is the lack of volunteers. The number of volunteers has been slowly de­clining over recent years, which has meant that other people have had to take on more roles and greater workloads. Unfortunately, this has resulted in Committee members burning out.”

To run the competition to its full poten­tial and reduce the workload on individual committee members, ideally, 12 people are needed.

Anyone can put their hand up to join the committee. The club has fallen low in terms of volunteers and committee members in the past, however this is the lowest number the club has seen thus far.

For more information, or to join the Com­mittee, email parkespumas@gmail.com. or reach out via their Facebook page. The club will be holding their next meeting at 6.00pm on Monday 20 July at the Parkes Services Club Boardroom (upstairs).

Lachlan District U16s are 2025 Premiers.

Coached byTroy Gosper from Parkes, the team is made up of Parkes and Forbes pre­dominantly with some Condobolin girls as well.

The Club was started three yearas ago with a rising number of girls within the area who wanted to play rugby league especial­ly with the growth of the NRLW.

The women’s rugby league is a fast growing sport especially in our area, Club Secretary Stevie Jackson said “This year we had over 41 players registered to play just in our u12s development side, proving how strong the growth is.”

“The U16s team have played together for a long time, half of the team have made representative teams for Lisa Fiaola teams for Western Rams, as well as Forbes Ruby Coote who has been listed for Illawarra Steelers, and Forbes Sarah Price for the Canberra Raiders.

In the grand final the girls went up against a very determined Vipers team who both came out strong.

“Our girls scored a try within the first 10 mins and vipers were quick to reply by scoring. The rest of the first half was ex­tremely intense. As the second half kicked off it was a back and forth game, but then with 10 mins to go our girls kicked it up an­other gear with Laila Hartwig scoring a try and our amazing kicker Katie Galvin con­verting.”

“The Vipers kicked off and straight into the hands of Ruby Coote who took off and scored a try, again we got the conversion.

It was this second gear that the girls found that led them to victory, and finishing the season undefeated.” said StevieThe Western Women’s comp kicks off in September each year. For anyone keen to follow the club, go to facebook page La­chlan District Woman’s Rugby League.

Parkes local Elizabeth MacGregor is the youngest member of the Bulldogs’ inaugural squad, at only 18 years of age, the fullback earned an NRLW call up in Round 4 and scored a double on debut.

We spoke to Elizabeth about her foot­ball journey: “I have played football for as long as I can remember, most of it being club football up until I was 16 when I played representative footy for Western Rams and NSWCCC through school.

“At 17 I began training with the Sydney Roosters under 19s Tarsha Gale team and played my first year of under 19s with them.

This involved a lot of travel to and from Syd­ney three times a week in order to live my dream of playing football as well as still liv­ing in my home town and completing school.

“Halfway through 2024 I received a phone call and it was an offer to be in the Bulldogs top 24 squad. At the time I was on bed rest after having ankle surgery so I couldn’t be­lieve it. Fast forward to the start of 2025 and I played my second year of 19s with Bull­dogs and when that season finished I con­tinued training with the NRLW team.

“When Brayden (NRLW coach) told me I would be making my debut against the Roosters I was quite nervous, but he has instilled a huge amount of confidence in me which helped with my preparation signifi­cantly.

“Going over for my first try was so surreal.

The first half didn’t go well for our team so to score our first try was amazing but the cutout pass from Ash Quinlan was unreal to get me over in the corner. Everyone in the team was so happy for me and I couldn’t ask for more supportive team mates. I was happy with one try but the second one just topped it all off, looking over at my family and friends cheering for me, some even cry­ing. It was unreal and I feel so blessed to have people who care about me and my success in rugby league.

“I had so many family and friends at the game to support me and lots of people watching from home. I can’t thank them enough for all their support, especially my parents for all the effort, especially the trav­el, they have put in to get me to where I am today.”

After such a thrilling debut, its no surprise that Elizabeth came out scoring first for the Bulldogs in her second game. Her stats speak for themselves – four tries in just two appearances, eight tackle breaks and four line breaks and only one missed tackle.

Elizabeth was personally identified by Head Coach Blake Cavallaro in Parkes, NSW as a 15-year-old, and despite being just 18 years old, Cavallaro believes the fledgling fullback will have plenty of impact on the Club’s inaugural NRLW squad. “Eliz­abeth is six-foot, she’s fast and she’s ath­letic,” Cavallaro said.

“She can play anywhere between fullback, wing and centre and her arrival to the squad will help to inject a spark that will positively influence her teammates.”

President of The Parkes Spacemen RLFC Tony Dwyer said of Elizabeth: “She’s a terrific girl, she deserves every success she gets because she trains very hard.

She’s put so much time and effort into get­ting to where she is, we’re so proud of her, and she’s just a terrific person too.”

This Sunday will be the first time that Forbes have opened the sea­son with an Anzac round against Parkes. Magpies Coach Cam­eron Greenhalgh said, “Training has been really good happy with our fitness levels and there has been plenty of high energy in our ball sessions.”

“The players are ready to play, pre-season is over I think the whole community is ready to watch some local footy.”

“Obviously our spine 1,6,7,9 will have a big influence on the out­come, as well as our forwards it will be tough, I don’t expect us to play our best footy for a while but we hoping for a solid start to the year.”

Forbes and Parkes are wearing special Anzac Day guernsey’s on Sunday. The Forbes guernsey’s will be auctioned off at the Forbes Inn after the game and the Parkes auction will take place at The Coachman Hotel. All grades will be playing with the girls kicking off at 10.30am. Head along and cheer on your local team!

Training Fridays 6:30pm @ Pioneer. All wel­come to come have a run around with all the new and returning Spacies legends.