Coronavirus has perfect recipe for making Bushpies

The coronavirus has changed the world forever, with the Bushpies one of the temporary side effects of the pandemic.

With numbers dwindling, the Yass Magpies and Tuggeranong Bushrangers joined forces to field a team in the Katrina Fanning Shield.

They'll make their debut against the Tuggeranong Buffaloes at Phillip Oval on Saturday.

But don't expect them to be the finished product. They've only had two training sessions together - on Tuesday and Thursday.

They could've been the Dragpies, but the Valley Dragons weren't fielding a team this year so their players headed crosstown to the Bushrangers before the COVID-19 virus changed everything.

It saw Yass president Greg Smith jump at the chance to lose his Saturdays back to rugby league.

Smith revealed it was a natural fit for the two clubs - even though they're an hours drive apart.

"From last year, whenever they played one another the Yass side and the Dragons always seemed to get on really well and I think they knew one another," he said.

"Over the weeks they seemed to get the numbers up.

"I put it out to the girls to think of something ... [and] the Bushpies seemed to be a name they all loved straight away."

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They've found themselves with the opposite problem to the Canberra Raiders.

While the Raiders have a dearth of forwards, the Bushpies have an abundance.

Well at the moment at least, with Smith set to turn some of them into outside backs.

"It's funny when you're trying to put a team together and I've got probably five or six second-rowers, a few front-rowers and not many backs so I might have to convert some into speedy wingers," he joked.

How will these new species of Bushpies go?

Smiths expecting there to be a fair bit of rust to blow out. Given the short preparation.

Can you even call two nights training together a pre-season?

"They're going to be very rusty and green and it will be hard for them for a while - match fitness is going to hit them for the first game," Smith said.

"But they're a lovely bunch of girls."

Smith had been working to keep the Magpies involved in not only the Katrina Fanning Shield, but the Canberra Raiders Cup.

Originally, the plan was to play in both, but as the lockdown dragged on interest waned.

And the Magpies were forced to pull out of the Cup. They looked set to do the same with the Shield too.

It had Smith scratching his head over what he was going to spend his weekends doing.

There were the juniors still to coach of course. But no seniors.

Until Canberra Region Rugby League general manager Mark Vergano helped forge the Bushpies alliance.

Now Smith can relax again. He's had his Saturdays taken away.

"I don't get the season off after all," he said.

"Which I don't mind anyway. I'd be lost without the footy on the weekend because I've done either juniors and seniors for 16 years so it didn't take much to sway me to do it."

KATRINA FANNING SHIELD ROUND ONE

Saturday: Bushpies v Tuggeranong Buffaloes at Phillip Oval, 10.30am; Queanbeyan Blues v West Belconnen Warriors at Seiffert Oval, 10.40am.