Condobolin Rugby have joined the South West Cup after some time out of it and are looking forward to the new challenges ahead. Condobolin Rugby President Bart Anderson, told the Times, “We have a bloke, Greg Wynn, that has stepped in and he couldn’t make all the games but has been at all the training days. He’s committed to 90 percent of the games. ‘We have been out of competition since 2022. We are going in and Blayney is going back to their comp.”
Bart expressed concern when it comes to the distance for teams to travel, however, as a former player himself he accepts it has always been difficult for teams travelling to the area on a four hour bus trip such as Harden and it’s the same for Condo when playing away games.
“You can get a million people at your home game but when you go away it’s a different story. It makes it a lot harder.
“Saturday mornings used to be horrid. We had to go around and knock on people’s doors just to get them on to the bus to get us to go away.
“It’s a different story this year. We’ve got a lot of young farmers who are back from Uni now, so we have a team.”
The new look side will be full of enthusiastic young men ready to prove themselves back in the senior grade in their home town. Bart joked, “Once I saw all the younger fellas come in I threw my boots out the back window. The game is a bit harder when you get a bit older.”
Bart said that rugby as a code isn’t looking as strong in current times. Something our journalist agreed with. “Covid killed us out here. We had a good strong Club and then Covid just ruined it.”
“I started playing footy in 2015, it was my first time ever on a football field.”
“I was a motorbike rider and it was pretty tough coming into footy as an adult. I used to watch a fair bit of it on TV, but I’ve mainly been a league person.”
“The camaraderie of the rugby union club out here was unreal. Everyone got along, you would go out after the game and have a good time and there was no BS. It was something that I enjoyed and something to do on the weekends and kept the family busy.”
Like any good Wingers Bart made the transition in to the pack and relished the role at Breakaway.
“As a winger I was pretty quick on the feet back in the day. I’ve moved to breakaway now.”
Harden’s own stalwart Heath Kirk started with the Devils in 1992 and has continued to play sporadically over the last couple of seasons. He has entered the ‘old boys comps’ more recently and still loves his Rugby. He had fond trips of Condo and the bus rides where a drink or two may have been consumed before and after the match.
Heading out on bus trips to Condo was “always a good drink”, he laughed. “They were long days. We’d leave here about 10am and you might get back before midnight if you were lucky.”
“We would take two grades if we could get two grades, but a lot of the time one grade played both.”
“I’m pretty sure it was Condo that we went out and lost Reserve Grade but won First Grade with the same team.”
“Another year with Bourkey coaching us we all went out on the bus and had a few drinks on the way and he flew up with Sean Barker, they had a private plane and flew out and met us there.”
“It was always a good time at Condo. I know there’s a couple of blokes that played for Condo and their brothers played for West Wyalong. They are good blokes. I still catch up with a few of them at AgQuip.
“They were always pretty tough the Condo side, but they were the same as us, they would always struggle for numbers coming down here and trying to field two grades. It’s a fair hike, about four hours on a bus.”
With just one side needing to be filled in the current comp, it’s hoped Condo will be back and back for good, which will strengthen bush footy further. It is Rugby Australia which has turned its back on grassroots footy and allowed other codes to fill the void. If not for the upcoming Lions Tour and impending World Cup it could be very dire financially for the sport. That and the lack of free to air coverage has contributed to the slow death of the game on a national level. Some good signs have shown themselves in 2025 with a few Super Rugby sides posting wins early in the season.
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