Has there been a more chaotic opening round to a season?

In Dubbo, Macquarie's Filisone Pauta was sent off following a high-shot on Dubbo CYMS winger Ratu Roko which saw the latter ruled out of the match.

Roko had attempted to step Pauta before slipping when the Raiders' centre connected.

James Stanley was sin binned late as well adding more drama while things were very similar at Bathurst.

Bathurst St Pat's lock Aaron Mawhinney and Panthers' Nick Tilburg were both sent off following a fight while Josh Merritt was sin binned as a result of the altercation.

The Panthers were already missing Brady Cheshire after he picked up a suspension against the Lithgow Workies Wolves.

Saints veteran Jacob Anlezark was also sent off in the Bathurst derby.

The atmosphere was good amongst the CYMS faithful at a sunny Wade Park as the proud club exorcised some demons from their 2023 season.

Perhaps the most wholesome moment of the day was former coach Ethan McKellar warmly embracing and congratulating his successor Jack Buchanan after the match.

The two men clearly have a lot of respect for one another and McKellar, who has taken the year off footy, was amongst the Old Boys in their usual spot in front of the canteen.

Also having a good time was president Cam Jones who has decided to give his body a rest after a decade of service in green and gold.

He told us he was enjoying being able to actually watch the game and had a strong debut as ground announcer and resident DJ.

The vibes are very good at CYMS at the moment.

Riding high on the Canterbury Bulldogs' success in 2024 so far, Dubbo CYMS junior Matt Burton was spotted at Apex Oval on Sunday.

The brother-in-law of CYMS centre Jyie Chapman, Burton was in the crowd to watch the former score a try and set two more up.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be for CYMS as Macquarie came away with the win.

Player points have become the perfect water cooler topic at the start of this year's Peter McDonald Premiership but we're going to have to wait a little longer to see the numbers.

Fans and followers of the comp are no doubt keen to see how close each team comes to their allotted cap of points.

Unfortunately, team sheets across the grounds during the opening round featured a big fat zero next to every player, and it's due to a technical error.

Under the online system where player points are entered an error is currently being returned every time a player with a number greater than zero is added to the list.It remains to be seen when the bug will be ironed out of the system.

We did get a look at the Mudgee Dragons' points allocation, since they manually filled them in on their team sheet, and they returned a total of 23.

Former NRL player Zac Saddler unsurprisingly tops that list with 12 points.

April 25 is one of the biggest days on the Australian calendar as the nation and our neighbours New Zealand recognise those who have served their respective nations.

It's also become a massive day on the rugby league calendar as well.

The National Rugby League had three matches played on Thursday while Dubbo CYMS were classy in their celebration on Sunday against Macquarie.

The club opted to wear specially designed jerseys to commemorate the occasion with a ceremony held prior to kick-off in the first grade match.