Column | The five Peter McDonald Premiership crossover games you have to watch in season 2022

Where normally we've been treated to derbies like CYMS and Hawks in Orange, the Anzac Day game in Bathurst, the June long weekend clash between Forbes and Parkes or the Raiders and Fishies clashes in Dubbo, this year we're going to bank all of those games and then some.

The crossover initiative - pitting Group 10 clubs against old Group 11 rivals at different points of the season - is one that'll give rugby league in the Western Rams region a real boost.

We no longer have to theorise which clubs in either Group are the strongest - we're going to see first hand which teams have what it takes to reign supreme.

Anyone versus Dubbo CYMS is going to be a big clash - it always is (just ask the five other Group 11 clubs) - and anyone headed to Mudgee will have their hands full; the Dragons have been begging for this chance for what seems like an eternity. But these are the five games we think are the ones worth hitting the road to watch:

Anyone who's been to Parkes on the long weekend to watch the Spacemen and the Magpies clash knows it's one of the best days of bush footy going.

And those same people will know over in the north-western corner of Jock Colley Field sits a famous group of supporters that simply love to give it to anyone in red, white and blue.

Now, Barry Merritt and the boys on Magpie Hill have another reason to go to Parkes.

Zac Merritt will be coaching St Pat's in 2022 and the Bathurst club has been drawn the Spacemen in the league's opening round.

It shapes as a massive game for both clubs - St Pat's because they never really got going throughtout a COVID-ravaged 2021 Group 10 competition, and will be desperate to prove they have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with the division's best and biggest clubs.

While Parkes will view last winter as a missed opportunity, and under Jack Creith for the combined competition loom as a genuine contender.

Either way, expect that little corner of Pioneer Oval to be very vocal in its support of the Merritt-led Saints.

On paper, this looks a regulation game. Nyngan a perennial contender in Group 11 against Hawks, now a young side which will be brilliantly guided by two-time NRL premiership winner Shane Rodney. And as it stands at February 15 it still is just that - a regular season match-up.

But in a couple of months this could be a seriously juicy clash.

Our spies in Western division's far reaches keep hearing former Hawks captain-coach Willie Heta is being linked with the Tigers. There's even been a request for his release lodged.

Should Heta eventually land in black and gold, and then rock up at Wade Park in round two to face his former teammates, we're expecting the mercurial five-eighth to turn it on.

Mudgee and Dubbo CYMS, out of everyone across the Western Rams region, have been two of the biggest supporters of a tackling new opposition.

It was roughly five years ago the Fishies lodged an application to move to Group 10, while Mudgee has pushed to join Group 11 for the last two seasons.

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Both get their wish in 2022 - and this clash at Apex Oval at the end of June looms as a bell-ringer.

Never a star-studded side, CYMS is arguably the most well-oiled machine in all of regional NSW. Everyone knows their job. Consistency is king. And it's a formula that's kept the Dubbo club at the top of Group 11 now for 20 years.

Likewise Mudgee, while there's been down years, you could argue the Dragons have been one of the more consistent clubs in Group 10 over the course of the last two decades too. They've played nine grand finals since 2000, winning multiple titles. There's plenty on the line in this one.

Forbes is getting the band back together, and Panthers is still the best side in Group 10 having won the last two premierships, all the while managing to keep a core group of star players motivated to maintain the rage.

But the last time these two sides played, in the end-of-season premiers challenge in 2018, the Magpies got the chocolates on the back of a five-star-outing from the Jake Grace-led Group 11 champs.

It will be very interesting to see how these two sides match-up again four years down the track.

I reckon you'd be hard pressed to find a tougher road trip than heading to Lithgow to play Workies in July.

It could be snowing. It will likely be blowing a gale. And it will almost definitely be freezing cold.

Back in 2005, playing at Lithgow was the worst experience for opposition teams anywhere in rugby league - it had to be. And while it's not 2005, granted, you get the feeling 2022 has to be the year Workies find a bit of the old physicality that made Tony Luchetti a rotten old ground to visit.

In this case, it'll be Wellington treated to the experience. The Cowboys are an intriguing beast out of Group 11.

If this was Lithgow travelling to Kennard Park, you could write almost the exact same as the above for those unlucky visiting sides travelling to a ground known affectionately as 'the graveyard'.

But, again, it's not 2005 ... and we're unlikely to know what the Cowboys produce until maybe as late as July.

This one is perhaps the most curious of all the crossover clashes - but if we get anything near old Workies versus vintage Cowboys, get in the car and head east (with five jumpers and a couple of sets of hand warmers), you won't be disappointed.