Narrabri Touch to host first week of finals series on Monday if restrictions ease

Narrabri Touch’s 2021 winter mixed competition will resume on Monday if stay at home restrictions are eased for the Narrabri local government area, the association’s committee told The Courier earlier this week.

The competition is currently on pause as teams and their players wait eagerly to get back on the park and compete in the three-week finals
series.

The final round of the regular season was played on Monday, August 2. But when COVID-19 reached Tamworth and Armidale and both were placed into lockdown, which also affected Narrabri Touch players and committee members, the association decided to postpone the first week of finals.

Should the season resume as hoped, the qualifying and elimination semi-finals will be played on Monday.

The two top-ranked teams in each grade would meet in qualifying semi-finals where the winners would progress to grand final night.

The losers of those matches will get a second chance when they play preliminary final games against the winners of the elimination semi-finals between the sides ranked third and fourth in finals week one.

Should the state-wide lockdown which currently has the season on pause be extended, Narrabri Touch will still aim to host a three-week finals series in the near future.

The association’s president Linton Grumley told The Courier that Narrabri Touch had a few weeks up its sleeve before it would be forced to start considering shortening the finals series.

It is believed that the grand final date could be extended as far as Monday, September 27.

If the finals series does not begin until much closer to that date and is required to be shortened, the first option Narrabri Touch will look at is the top-ranked teams in each games progressing through to the grand finals, the second and third-placed teams battling it out for the other grand final spots, and fourth-place teams unfortunately being eliminated.

If the first week of finals is played on Monday, the draw will be as follows:

5.40pm – Opening and desk duty – Tanya Nolan.

6pm: Field one – Sprayerbarn Spinouts v Agies (Tom Nolan, Craig Gleeson), field two – Rags and Dags v Tradies and Ladies (Wayne Nott, Jakeb Nipperess), field three – Outback Snaccs v Kalyx Krusaders (Brendon Warnock, Cassidy Staines), field four – Mixed Styles v RSL Guys and Gals (Clayton Pursche, Brett Allison).

6.35pm: Desk duty – Joan O’Neill, field one – TRTW v Hammertime (Connor Duncan, Nathan Dicks), field two – Tapscott Pumpers v Win or Booze (Peter Quirk, Alisha Conomos), field three – Witty Wizards v Santos Emus (Jeremy Saunders, Danny Laws), field four – Coalbed v The Kerrigans (Ken Campbell, Kristy Toomey).

7.10pm: Desk Duty – Shannon Rily, field one – Vaughany’s Pump House v The Replacements (Linton Grumley, Craig Gleeson).

Bye – Hounddogs.