The Hunter women's side finished fourth but it was tough going for the men and colts at the NSW Country Championships in Tamworth at the weekend.
In the Caldwell Cup, Hunter lost to Central West 23-0 early Saturday and were then thumped by Illawarra 50-3 the same morning.
The men claimed a 31-12 win over Western Plains in a seventh versus eighth playoff game on Sunday.
"It was tough. We only had an hour and a half turnaround between games," coach Martin Brett said.
"We clicked a bit better against Western Plains. The standard wasn't as good as Central West and Illawarra, but we executed a lot better than Saturday. There's a fair bit of excitement for those blokes to be involved again."
Central Coast beat Central West 32-29 in the final.
The Hunter women had big wins over Far North Coast (66-7) and New England (46-0) to put themselves in a position to qualify for the Thomson Cup final, but suffered a hard-fought 8-6 loss to Central North in their third game on Saturday.
They fell to Mid North Coast 19-12 in a third versus fourth match on Sunday.
Central West claimed the Thomson Cup with a 23-0 win over Central North.
The Hunter colts lost a tight match against Central West 16-12 and then went down 25-5 to Far North Coast in their matches on Saturday.
They defeated Illawarra 25-14 but lost to the Central Coast 20-0 on Sunday.
Central West went undefeated to finish first and win the Rowlands Colts Cup.
