Bathurst Panthers narrowly miss out of Blayney Reserve Grade Knockout final

The Panthers beat hosts Blayney Bears 22-18 and followed that up with a 6-all against eventual finalists Cowra Magpies but rounded out the event with a 16-4 loss to the Orange Hawks.

Hawks would go on to best the previously unbeaten Magpies in the decider 18-6, flipping the result between the clubs during the pool stage.

The four-team competition was a chance for the clubs to see where they're at ahead of the inaugural Western Reserve Grade Premiership and how they might stack up against Group 11 opposition.

Co-coach Michael Wicks said the team came away from the knockout a little worse for wear but happy with what they brought on the field.

"It was good. Everyone played well. We did have a few injuries out of it but other than that everyone had a good day," he said.

"Everyone had niggles out of it, and Chappo [co-coach Tyson Chapple] broke his finger in three places. He strapped that up and still played the last couple of games for us.

"Everyone was running around busted by the end of it and I think that even if we'd made the final we probably would have had to forfeit from it anyway.

"We still got some great minutes in the legs and some of the blokes out there played beyond what we thought they had, so that was really good to see."

The knockout was the last hit out for the team before their opening round fixture.

Wicks said the three games lay a good groundwork for the team, and there were no glaring issues that stood out among his team over the course of those matches.

"It's now just round one ahead for us now. We're off to training for a few weeks and then it's off to our first game over the weekend of the 15^th and 16^th," he said.

"We'll have to wait and see how Chappo comes back after he's seen the specialist through the week.

"I think the main thing we'll just need to work on between now and the start of our season is just our fitness. I think a couple of the tries that were scored against us came from kicks, and there were a couple of kick-offs that weren't caught on the full.

"Those will be a couple of easy fixes, just the little things like that."

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