BY ALEX TIGANI
“There’s a Cup that goes around country rugby league and it is given to the best overall first grade club.”
This was the first line from Hunter Harrison’s address at the Scone Thoroughbreds’ senior presentation on Saturday evening.
By the time he completed the sentence, the club’s 180 players, officials, sponsors and supporters who had packed the Scone Race Club began to celebrate.
The Scone Thoroughbreds were crowned as the Clayton Cup winner for season 2022.
Harrison, the Greater Northern Region representative for NSWRL, declared that the club displayed ‘Winx like dominance’ in 2022.
It marked Scone’s second crown after claiming the coveted award in 1979 while the Singleton Greyhounds also won the award in 1990.
Only 12 clubs have brought the Cup home twice, a third feat in the near future will secure equal top spot on the leaderboard for the Thoroughbreds.
| CLAYTON CUP LEADERBOARD (1937-2022) | ||
| Wins | Club (Region) | Years |
| 3 | North Tamworth Bears (Group 4) | 1951, 2014, 2019 |
| 3 | Grafton Ghosts (Northern Rivers) | 2010-11, 2017 |
| 3 | Cobar (Group 15) | 1971-72, 1998 |
| 2 | Scone Thoroughbreds (Group 21) | 1979, 2022 |
| 2 | Bombala (Group 16) | 1947, 1976 |
| 2 | Young (Group 9) | 1953, 1955 |
| 2 | Tweed Heads Seagulls (Group 18) | 1963, 1983 |
| 2 | Tumbarumba (Group 13) | 1985-86 |
| 2 | Forster Tuncurry Hawks (Group 3) | 1994-95 |
| 2 | Barellan (Group 17) | 1999, 2002 |
| 2 | Temora (Group 9) | 1957, 2004 |
| 2 | Port Macquarie Sharks (Group 2) | 2001, 2015 |
| 1 | Singleton Greyhounds (Group 21) | 1990 |
| 1 | Maitland Pickers (Newcastle RL) | 1956 |
