Castlereagh corner: Plenty of emotion for Unicorns after 'one of the best wins we've ever had'

Last Saturday, they were falling for a completely different reason.

After a 2023 season in which the community was left shattered after the death of Coonabarabran Unicorns junior and former NRL player Kyle Turner, the club was seen as a major outsider for the 2024 Castlereagh League.

Now, after the first two rounds of the season, the Unicorns are riding high.

After a 42-30 win over Coonamble in round one, the Unicorns beat Baradine last weekend in what has been regarded as one of the greatest victories in the club's history.

Down on players, the Unicorns scored an incredibly gutsy 12-6 win over a youthful and exciting Magpies side.

"We did it with 15 men," Unicorns captain-coach Jarvis Watton said.

"We had a lot of blokes pull out at the last minutes so that win on the weekend is one of the best wins, I think, we've ever had as a club.

"It was wet-weather footy so points were at a premium ... but I couldn't be happier with our defence and members of the community have been getting around us and telling us that's one of the greatest things they've seen considering how short we were."

The win meant so much it even led to a few tears being shed by some of the club's old boys.

Emotion is nothing new around the Unicorns.

The death of Turner last August devastated the closeknit community and, in particular, the Unicorns.

Turner was a hero in his hometown having gone from a local junior to an Indigenous All Star who won an NRL premiership with South Sydney.

Turner's NRL career finished in 2019 and in recent years he had returned home to play for Unicorns again alongside a number of his childhood mates and relatives.

"That was something that hit the entire community pretty hard," Watton said.

"A lot of fellas, including myself, went to school with Kyle and we grew up with Kyle. Kyle's one of our best mates.

"We never saw Kyle as the South Sydney Rabbitoh or a professional football player. He was always just our mate and our brother in a lot of way.

"It's always in the back of our mind."

Watton added Turner is "one of the best footballers to ever come out of this town" and they try and use the tragedy in a positive way.

"We try to use that to motivate us and we want to do right by his memory," he said.

"If we were able to do something magical this year, we would be dedicating a lot of that to the memory of him."

If the early signs are anything to go by, the Unicorns look every bit a finals contender.

Watton said there were some even within the club who thought 2024 could be a "down year" but now the "town is buzzing" after impressive back-to-back wins.

The attacking quality was on show in round one when Watton's side ran in seven tries while the defensive quality of the Unicorns was clear to see at Baradine.

Prop David Sulter, a relation of Turner's, was immense in both games and got through 80 minutes each week while youngster Nick Willoughby has been a standout since moving from fullback to lock this year.

"Everyone is playing with confidence and I think the best part of our game by far is our defence," Watton said.

"I don't think anyone really expected us to win that (Baradine) game. The fact that we pulled it out has just given everybody the belief that we can give this competition a shake this year."

Given the strong start, the goal for the Unicorns is now a home semi-final.

Their credentials will be tested in round three when they take on the unbeaten Coolah Roos.

Watton confirmed the Unicorns will have more numbers for round three.

Coolah head into the match having beaten Coonamble 14-6 while Cobar is also unbeaten after winning 30-12 at Gulgong.

Narromine downed Gilgandra 32-22 in the other match.