Tony Dwyer depicted 6th from the left and Wayne Medlyn 8th in the freshly painted Eugowra Rugby League Football Club “Team of the Century” mural

The newly refurbished Eugowra Rugby League Football Club Team of the Century mural, which commemorates 100 years of Rugby League in Eugowra, features none other than Parkes own Spacemen President, Tony Dwyer.

Tony has a long association with rugby league across both the towns of Parkes and Eugowra. He started playing football for the Parkes under 12s in 1972 when they won the competition. However, he then did not return to the game until his first year in under 18s, saying: I stayed two years in 18s, then played for Parkes until 1983 when we won the competition under Ted Goodwin.

Despite playing the entire year for Parkes in 1983 at half-back, Tony was dropped for the semi-final and didnt get back on the field in the grand final, prompting the need for a change of scenery.

I went out to Eugowra, Jock Colley was the coach at the time, and he told me to come out for a run, so I had a run with him for a season and then Jock retired and I coached for the next two years.

Tonys first year in Eugowra was 1984, and he stayed with the team for three years until 1986. We got beat in the grand final in 1984, we won the competition in 1985 and were beat again in 1986, said Tony.

Following the 1986 competition, Tony took a year off football to fix an injured knee, before heading back onto the field with Parkes in 1988. We won the competition that year under Neil Moy, then I gave away playing football and started refereeing, said Tony.

Tony started off refereeing junior league, then stepped up to referee senior league in 1991, resulting in the next 10 years spent in Group 11.

Tony has also coached junior league in Parkes and has been President of The Parkes Rugby League Football Club, for the past four years, declaring that he is happily tied up with the club forever.

Tony never imagined he would one day be depicted larger than life on a mural to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Eugowra Rugby League Football Club.

Tony explains: That was out of the blue. They rang up one day and said – have you got a picture of yourself? They explained they were doing a mural of all the grand final coaches who had won the competition.

It worked out well, because my good mate Wayne Medlyn came out playing with me in 1985 and he stayed on when I got my knee fixed. He ended up coaching in 1988 and also won the competition.

Tony has fond memories of his time playing football for Eugowra. Eugowra is a great place, and the people, they are a great community, they always welcome you back. Each year there is an event and we all travel back to catch up, I look forward to it every year, concluded Tony.

IMAGE LEFT: Elizabeth and Maely pictured at Spicer Oval in Parkes for training. IMAGE RIGHT: Elizabeth and Maely pictured together at last Saturday’s game against CSU.

Parkes cousins Elizabeth and Maely MacGregor are continuing to amaze the crowds whenever they strap on a pair of footy boots. Last weekend the Parkes Boars Women’s team took on CSU Bathurst, winning the game 50 – 0, and notwithstanding a great all round team effort, incredibly all 50 points on the board were scored by the two cousins.

Eighteen year old Maely only just played her first season of rugby union for the Parkes Boars in 2023, and has been very exciting to watch. Last Saturday Maely scored one try and kicked 5 from 8 conversions.

We asked Maely what teams she thought would be some of their biggest competition this year, she said: “Wellington has become strong and Mudgee is always really strong, so they will be two tough teams to beat.”

When asked what the girls were focusing on at training this week Maely said “I think just our structure is mostly what we are working on, and making sure that we can complete our plays and retain the ball to score tries.”

Seventeen year old Elizabeth played her first ever game of Rugby Union last Saturday in the hit out against CSU. Elizabeth is an established up and coming rugby league star and credits her extension into rugby union to her cousin, saying: “Maely tried to get me to play union last year and didn’t get me, but this year she convinced me”.

Before heading out on the field for her first match, Maely gave her younger cousin Elizabeth a solid piece of advice: “Just get the ball and run.”

“I didn’t know the rules, I kept running back to try and get on side, before realising I didn’t need to do that. I was nervous, and a bit confused at the start, but I got the hang of it a little bit more at the end”.

Heading into the away game this weekend against Wellington, Elizabeth will be focused on scoring more tries. “I am still very new, but I will try stay on the outside of Maely, she should set me up and put me in a couple of holes, and just run,” she said.