From all of us here at The Grill - HAVE A CRACKER OF A WEEKEND! 

Make sure you check back in with us on Monday with the great Angela Clutterbuck. 

In the meantime keep updated with all the sites from around the region:

DUBBO | NARROMINE | WELLINGTON | NYNGAN | THE RIDGE | WESTERN MAGAZINE | 

8:50am: Check out the athletes at the Astley Cup 

8:45am: It's that time of the morning ladies and gentlemen - BIRTHDAY CALL OUT!

For those of you out there turning another year older - never fear, the best is yet to come! 

Did you know you also share this glory day with Khloé Kardashian and Tobey Maguire?

8:35am: A $30,000 grant Narromine Shire Council received for the relocation or restoration of the Cenotaph comes with no expiry date.

Director of the NSW Government Office of Veteran Affairs and chair of State War Memorial Committee Darren Mitchell said they were glad the community was part of the decision process.

8:30am: Calling all True Blood fans - 

8:25am: Qantas flight attendant: Confessions from the first-class galley

We would all be kidding ourselves if we tried to say we didn't get a little star-struck every now and then.

A new book lifts the lid on what really goes down. In Confessions of a Qantas Flight Attendant – True Tales and Gossip from the Galley, Owen Beddall dishes the first-class dirt, revealing all about the glamorous world of flying.

8:20am: Don't send in the clowns 

DUBBO's main street was awash with sound and colour as a procession of vehicles with clowns on the top signalled The Great Moscow Circus would soon be in town.

Earlier, Dubbo City Council told the circus it would not be allowed to erect giant inflatable clowns throughout the city to promote the event as it had done in Bathurst and Orange.

8:15am: Check out Narromine's Throwback Thursday album from this week. 

8:10am: If you're looking for a lazy weekend these guys have got you covered

8:00am: Our top story of the day

A student was taken to hospital yesterday following a violent brawl in the boys' Astley Cup rugby league match at Caltex Park which has overshadowed the annual tri-school sporting event.

With roughly 15 minutes remaining in the match between Dubbo College Senior Campus and Orange High School a push-and-shove following a tackle erupted into players running from all parts of the field and throwing punches, resulting in the match being abandoned.

Read more here

7:50am: Luis Suarez banned for nine international matches, plus four months of football activities. 

World football's governing body FIFA has acted swiftly to ban rogue Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez for nine international matches and from any football-related activity for four months. 

7:45am: MH370 UPDATE

The mystery flight MH370 was almost certainly set to autopilot before it began its journey south, authorities said, as the government announced a new underwater search zone for the wreckage.

7:40am: And now for what's making national headlines today: 

A tidal shift in the jobs market has seen mining supplanted by aged care and even manufacturing as job vacancies in the west vanish and are replaced by new vacant jobs in Australia's east.

Cleaners of government buildings will be spared a 20 per cent pay cut after the Abbott government backed down on an element of its red tape bonfire.

It was during Senate estimates, just over a year ago, that a full-scale inquiry into the corporate regulator's mishandling of the Commonwealth Bank financial planning scandal became inevitable.

A powerful Senate inquiry has called for the Commonwealth Bank to face a royal commission to investigate fraud, forgery and allegations of a cover-up inside its financial planning arm.

Late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile sexually abused vulnerable patients in scores of British hospitals over decades and claimed to have performed sex acts on dead bodies, investigators said on Thursday.

When Teagan Couper's father Noel was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, his family felt secure his life insurance would be enough to financially compensate for his death.But soon after his terminal diagnosis, they discovered the high-risk policy recommended by the Commonwealth Bank was almost devoid of funds.

7:30am: Check out the news from around the region on this glorious last day of the working week. 

DUBBO: 

A student was taken to hospital yesterday following a violent brawl in the boys' Astley Cup rugby league match at Caltex Park which has overshadowed the annual tri-school sporting event.

A SPATE of serious brucellosis infections in dogs, including in the state's west, has prompted a warning from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI).

A DATE has been set for NSW Parliament to discuss the Save Playmates Cottage petition.

A NEW counselling support service, Sexual Assault Counselling Australia, was launched yesterday in Dubbo by Gemini Bakos, Duty Officer, Orana Local Area Command.

NARROMINE: 

A stormwater levy and 2.3 per cent rate increase were passed at the Narromine Shire Council Extraordinary Meeting.

The brakes have been put on Narromine's taxi service with the business being forced to shut down. 

7.10am: Good morning everyone. Sorry we're late this morning! Happy Friday.

You're grilling with Laura McIntyre today, if you have any thing you'd like to send through please do! 

thegrill@fairfaxmedia.com.au