The defending premiers will tackle the rebuilding Bears at Carrington Park in the curtain-raiser to the Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm NRL game, which will kick-off on Saturday, March 30 at Bathurst.

The Group 10 curtain-raiser is quickly becoming a feature of Penrith’s agreement with Bathurst council, with the premier league game staged in front of close to 3000 fans in each of the last two years.

The opening round of the 2019 Group 10 competition doesn’t officially kick-off until the weekend of April 13 – two weeks after the Carrington Park NRL game – but Bathurst Panthers president Dennis Comerford said bringing his club’s round one fixture forward, and bringing the Bears along for the ride, was a no-brainer. 

“It is a strange one (being two weeks early) but it’s where dates fall and the availability of grounds has a big impact on us,” Comerford said.

The clubs’ lower grades will face off on the weekend of April 13, which will coincide with opening round games for the rest of the competition.

“All we can do is try and overcome it and make the best of it, and I think we’ve done that,” he added.

Bathurst Panthers has played Orange Hawks (2017) and Cowra Magpies (2018) so far in curtain-raisers and Comerford said it was his club’s goal to give each team the opportunity to play in front of what is essentially “a grand final crowd”.

“Council has left it up to us to organise the curtain-raiser, and the Group 10 clubs love it. It’s only fair we give them all a go,” he added.

With season 2019 kicking off with a bang at the Bathurst NRL game, Group 10 is currently working through the rest of the draw before release in early 2019.

But it shapes as a blockbuster opening few months for the Western Rams competition.

Ray Hadley and the Continuous Call Team have agreed to come to Bathurst to call the Anzac Day derby between Panthers and St Pat’s on Saturday, April 29.

As a prelude to the St George Illawarra and Newcastle Knights game at Mudgee on May 19, Group 10 and Group 11’s senior rep teams will play-off for Western supremacy, again, in what should be a bumper crowd at Glen Willow.

On top of that, the Rams region will host junior rep games in Lithgow (February 16) and at Parkes (March 10) as well as the country championship finals at Glen Willow on April 6.

Comerford said having Ray Hadley and his weekend rugby league show, which broadcasts through 2GB in Sydney, head to Bathurst to call Panthers’ derby clash with Luke Branighan’s St Pat’s side was a huge boon for the game.

“At this stage they’ve agreed to come and do it. He’s happy to come on board,” Comerford added.

“We’ve tried to get him before but we didn’t give them enough time, but we’ve done that this time.”

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