PBR Australia's Monster Energy Tour invades the south coast of New South Wales this Saturday, 27 September, for the 2025 Nowra Invitational.
The Nowra Showground will host the event with the Can-Am Junior Academy in action from 5:00 p.m. AEST and Monster Energy Tour action from 7:00 p.m. AEST.
Event Information and Tickets are available from the PBR Australia website.
Event History
The last event held in Nowra was in 2017, and Gisborne bull rider Fraser Babbington was perfect on the night. The Kiwi finished the night 4-for-4, taking the win and a third-place finish on dual entries.
Will Purcell also rode both of his bulls on the night and filled the runner-up position with Aaron Kleier finishing fourth with his own 2-for-2 performance.
In 2022, the PBR visited Berry for the Big Country PBR, where Singleton's Cody Heffernan was the lone rider to cover two bulls in the three-round competition.
View the latest results from PBR Australia competition here.
Format, Prizemoney and Points
Twenty riders will go head-to-head over two rounds of competition, and there is $20,000 in prize money up for grabs. All cowboys will face a bull in Round 1 and Round 2. The rider with the highest aggregate score will be crowned the event champion.
A maximum of 280 points will be available to any individual rider towards the 2025 PBR Australian National Standings. Each round winner will receive 40 points, and the event champion will receive 200 points.
Watch all the action on PBR Australia’s YouTube Channel and Live Stream page.
Talking Points
Luan Crystian Camara picked up his fourth event win of the 2025 PBR Australia season last weekend in Orange to stay in the hunt for the National Championship. It was a weekend that the Brazilian bull rider had to have. After going 1-from-7 across the four previous events, he watched as Kurt Shephard's lead in the gold buckle race ballooned out to over 400 points.
With his win, Camara cut the margin back to 287.83 points and has almost guaranteed himself the Rookie of the Year title. He has drawn a nice bull in Kick Start My Heart (Diamond S Bucking Bulls) for Round 1 this weekend, but his Round 2 matchup with Conquistador (Maynes Bucking Bulls) looks like a real challenge. He needs to keep the momentum rolling with the last month of the season on our doorstep.
The race for Grand Finals qualification continues this weekend. After strong finishes in Orange, Kelsey Pavlou and Charlie Bailey have joined Dan Ruhland just outside of the top 22 in the National Standings.
Pavlou and Bailey will enter this weekend full of confidence after splitting the Round 1 win and tying for second in the aggregate behind Camara. Pavlou will be riding high after his 84.50-point ride on Del Rio (Maynes Bucking Bulls), while Bailey's score came aboard Cool Hand (Morgys Cattle Company).
Ruhland had a great weekend in Hawkesbury a fortnight ago. He finished runner-up behind Clint Glass on 2-from-3 riding to record the best result of his career. After missing Orange, he will be looking to carry his good form over to this weekend.
All three riders need to continue their upward trend in the Standings, as do riders just inside the cut line, such as No. 19-ranked Dylan Weir and No. 20-ranked Nash Mellers.
Matchups to Watch
Round 1
Zane Hall on N02 Jungle Full Of Hillbillys (Diamond S Bucking Bulls)
Hall has bucked off his last five bulls since finishing in the money at the Tasman Cup, but he gets a nice opportunity here to bounce back against Jungle Full of Hillbillys. This bull prefers to turn back to the left, but he can take a jump or two before he fully commits to the spin. That is a pattern that should suit the left-handed cowboy from Athol. Matheus Lima Rodrigues was the last rider to make the whistle, and that came at Sydney Meatstock for 82.5 points, but Hall could be a point or two higher if successful.
Kurt Shephard on 3202 Even Up (Morgys Cattle Company)
Even Up was ridden for two scores early in his career, but then went on to buck off ten cowboys in a row. Kurt Shephard ended that streak at Origin I in Newcastle with 81.50 points, so he will be confident going into this rematch opportunity. This bull has mixed it up in his last few outs. In previous trips, he has looked to the right, before turning back to the left, but in Orange last weekend, he hung a horn in the gate and turned to the right. Either way, the Mareeba talent should be able to get the job done and get his night off to a good start after missing out last weekend in Orange.
Round 2
Charlie Bailey on 105 City Nights (Dittmann Bucking Bulls)
Qualified rides have been a bit hard to come by for the Oberon rookie bull rider, but he always gives it everything he has and always gets his bulls started. In his last seven buck-offs, he has taken five of them past 5.5 seconds on the clock, so he has been riding better than what his record suggests. Here he faces City Nights, who has been ridden twice from his six trips in PBR Australia competition. This bull's regular trip is to the left, which puts him into Bailey's hand, with scores in the mid-80s achievable.
Ben Bode on 831 Pandemic (Lazy B Bucking Bulls and Edgar Partnership)
This will be the third time that we have seen these two athletes match up in a PBR Australia arena. The record stands at 1-all, with Pandemic winning at Mackay last year in 6.80 seconds, and Bode recording 87.50 points at the Grand Finals in Townsville a month later. It has been a lean year for the Calliope cowboy but he remains inside the top ten, and a qualified ride here will give him a good launching pad into the last month of the season. Expect the bull to turn back to the left and into his hand with plenty of purpose.
View the full Daysheet for the 2025 Nowra Invitational.
For the latest results, news and stats, stay tuned to PBRAustralia.com.au, follow the tour on Facebook (PBR Australia), Instagram (@PBRAustralia) and TikTok (@PBRAustralia) and subscribe to @ProBullRidersAust on YouTube for live events, replays and highlights.
