Narrabri Touch committee meets to sort teams into grades and lock in finals format

Narrabri Touch hosted a committee meeting on Wednesday night to sort its 17 teams into their grades and to discuss the formats of the approaching finals series.

The eight-team ladies’ division has been split evenly into two four-team grades, while the nine-team men’s division was also split into two grades – five teams in A-grade and four teams in B-grade.

The A-grade ladies’ teams are Agies Ladies, SPA Redbacks, Specialised Quarries and Concrete and the Wilga Westies, and the A-grade men’s teams are Grumley Builders, Win Or Booze, Lations, Gee Bangers and the Wilga Pelicans.

The B-grade ladies’ sides include CBRE, Blue Birds, Hounddogs and Touch’n’go, and the B-grade men’s teams are the DTA Treated Timber Lumberjacks, Cougars, Ballbusters and NFC.

The A-grade men’s finals series is required to start a week earlier than the rest due to it having an extra team, so it will get underway this Monday, November 21.

Second-placed Win Or Booze will take on third-placed Lations in the qualifying final, and fourth-placed Gee Bangers will meet fifth-placed Wilga Pelicans in the elimination final.

Minor premiers Grumley Builders have a bye while those teams play, and they will compete in the major semi-final on Monday, November 28, against the team that wins the qualifying final.

The finals series for all ladies’ teams and the men’s B-grade teams will get underway on Monday, November 28.

Those teams will have a final hitout this Monday when they play friendly games that will not have an impact on the competition ladders or the finals series.

All semi-final games will be contested on November 28, which will be followed by preliminary finals on December 5 and grand final night on Friday, November 9.

The grand finals will be played at Dangar Park, the home of the Narrabri Blue Boars, while all other finals games will be played at Cooma Oval.

In all four grades on November 28, the semi-final match-ups will see the top-ranked team take on the second-ranked team and the third-ranked team meet the fourth-ranked team. The winners of the games between the higher-ranked sides will progress through to grand final night, and the losers will have a second chance in the preliminary finals. The winners of the semi-final games between the lowest-ranked sides will also play in the preliminary finals, and the losers will be eliminated.

The teams were placed into grades based on their ladder positions at the completion of the 16-round regular seasons.

The final round of the 2022 regular season was washed out earlier this week on Monday, November 14. It was the sixth round that was called off due to wet weather during the campaign.

Meanwhile, the leading try-scorer in the ladies’ competition was Agies Ladies’ Bella Cruickshank, who crossed the stripe 24 times. That was seven more than teammate Alisha Conomos who was second on the try-scorers list with 17.

The men’s competition’s leading try-scorer was Win Or Booze’s Cooper Brayshaw, who went over 17 times, twice more than Grumley Builders’ Felix Cobb-Johnson.

The standings and points totals for both divisions are as follows:

Men: 1. Grumley Builders (40), 2. Win Or Booze (33), 3. Lations (32), 4. Gee Bangers (31), 5. Wilga Pelicans (30), 6. DTA Treated Timber Lumberjacks (24), 7. Cougars (24), 8. Ballbusters (22), 9. NFC (20).

Ladies: 1. Agies Ladies (40), 2. SPA Redbacks (40), 3. Specialised Quarries and Concrete (38), 4. Wilga Westies (31), 5. CBRE (29), 6. Blue Birds (27), 7. Hounddogs (27), 8. Touch’n’go (24).

The draw and referee appointments for Monday, November 21, are as follows:

6pm: Desk duty – Joan O’Neill; qualifying final on field one – Win or Booze v Lations (referees – Matt Roberts and Craig Gleeson); field two – CBRE v Hounddogs (referees – Kristie Toomey and Peter Quirk); field three – Cougars v NFC (referees – Clayton Pursche and Ken Nolan); field four – SPA Redbacks v Wilga Westies (referees – Nathan Dicks and Abby McClure).

6.35pm: Desk duty – Joan O’Neill; elimination final on field one – Gee Bangers v Wilga Pelicans (referees – Jakeb Nipperess and Tom Nolan); field two – Bluebirds v Touch n Go (referees – Mereka Gleeson and Emma John); field three – DTA Treated Timber Lumberjacks v Ballbusters (referees – David Toomey and Brett Allison); field four – Agies Ladies v Specialised Quarries & Concrete (referees – Matt Roberts and Linton Grumley).