Bulldogs, Tigers and Chicks do coast proud at Batemans Bay Monaro Knockout

The knockout competition was played in Batemans Bay as a precursor to the coming rugby league seasons across regional NSW and the ACT.

The Merimbula-Pambula Bulldogs took home the Men's Tackle Cup with a 16-4 win over their opponent Avondale.

The Eden Tigers won the Men's Tackle Plate with an impressive 28 points keeping the Molong Bulls scoreless, while Eden's women's side made the Ladies Cup grand final, but lost to Binalong 22-10 in overtime.

Captain and coach of the Eden Tigers men's side, Blake Robinson said it was a good way to kick off the season, and said the team they lost to on Friday night by one point ended up playing Merimbula-Pambula in the Grand Final.

"Looking at it that way, it was a pretty good achievement, especially with three to four players who hadn't played football for at least 10-15 years or hadn't played football at all in their life," Robinson said.

"We had a lot of young people as well, the average age at the moment is 22-years-old, so it's actually good to see some young talent coming through, and we also have six Kiwis we've [signed] with the club this year which will boost the town and the club.

"It was good to have a run around and iron out the bugs early on in the season, and the best part was just the grit the boys showed, they only go for 15 minute halves with unlimited interchanges, but not many people wanted to come off."

Bega Chicks took home the Ladies Tag Plate, which captain Ali Ringland said was a really good result and allowed her and coach Ray Ringland to see how the new team performed during competition.

"We had 17 girls go up, which was a big number, but had a lot of new girls playing, a couple had never played a game of league tag before, a couple coming up from junior league," she said.

"It was good to see how they all went because we didn't know how the girls were going to go together."

After beating Milton-Ulladulla on Friday, March 15, the Merimbula-Pambula Bulldogs were placed in the higher Cup competition, while those who lost their Friday game competed for the Plate.

Coach of the Merimbula-Pambula Bulldogs Simon Scott said he was very proud of their efforts, describing how they would still be sore from the strenuous weekend and dedication they put into their games.

The Bulldogs began their knockout with a solid win against Snowy River Bears, before a tough semi-final against Darlington Point Roosters saw the team clench a narrow victory.

"Saturday afternoon was probably the most physical game we had all weekend, against Darlington Point Roosters, very big side, they missed the goal on the full-time siren, so we won that by 12-10 which put us into the grand final against Avondale," coach Scott said.

"After that team effort, that was like an iron man competition with four games of football over about 12 hours, I needed everyone and they all put their hand up, so it wouldn't be fair to isolate one individual from the weekend.

"We had a focus on going there and doing well, and I don't know if I thought we could have won it. But in hindsight, yeah, I just knew I was taking up a very good football side, so we knuckled down about two weeks out and put extra training into it."