Three Parkes rugby stars have featured in the central west women's long weekend Country Championships win.
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Maely MacGregor, Emma Evans and Lucy Turner were selected for the Blue Bullettes side to win back the Thomson Cup at Tamworth.
MacGregor, who opened the scoring for central west in their grand final win, was named central west's best back at the end of a thrilling campaign, and Emma Evans said it had been an incredible experience for all three locals.
Central West won both their pool games, accounting for Illawarra 17-7 and Central North 30-nil, to qualify for Sunday's grand final against Hunter where they triumphed 28-10.
It was Evans' central west debut, and the first senior women's selection for MacGregor and Turner.
"(Maely) stepped up amazingly, and so did Lucy coming into the forwards," Evans said.
"We were all very nervous coming from Parkes, which is a 10s team, to 15s.
"It's a bit different - a lot more people on the field, line-outs, scrums, were different which we had to learn on the go pretty much. But we had great support all around us from all the senior players."
Central West needed less than four minutes to get on the board in the grand final: MacGregor ran nearly half the length of the field to score once she found space down the left side.
The defending champion Hunter squad started to enjoy a much bigger share of possession after the try and eventually used that pressure to close the gap to 8-5.
The first half remained tight but Hunter's Georgie Ball was shown a yellow card at half-time, giving the Bullettes a golden chance to extend their lead after the break.
Macgregor linked up with Bathurst's Tiana Anderson to create an overlap down the right side before the ball ended up in the hands of Bulldogs teammate Abbey Corby for a try.
Wellington's Kiara Sullivan was next to cross the line, scooping the ball up from an Anderson kick to give central west a 20-5 lead.
With a little over 20 minutes to go Hunter scored through Ella Morris, however, the Bullettes responded straight away when Anderson sprinted down the left wing for a try and a vital 15-point advantage.
A late penalty goal sealed the score for central west.
"It was amazing," Evans said of the experience.
"I think personally it's definitely made me a better football player, playing with girls that are amazing and supportive like that - you rise to their levels.
"We just took it all in, we listened to what everyone said and executed that to help get the wins over the weekend."
She couldn't wait to bring everything she'd learned back to Parkes, travelling home in time for training on Tuesday night.
"It's such a high for all of us and this experience is going to help keep the season on a roll," Evans said.
