Grand finalists locked in following Narrabri Touch’s preliminary finals

Narrabri Touch held the preliminary finals of its 2022 men’s and women’s competitions at Cooma Oval earlier this week on Monday afternoon, and the grand final teams are now locked in.

SPA Redbacks, Lations, Ballbusters and CBRE were all victorious in their respective games and will now feature on grand final evening this Monday.

The Redbacks took on Specialised Quarries and Concrete in the A-grade women’s competition and prevailed 4-2.

Cassidy Morley, Hayley Lang, Emma John and Brooke Field all crossed for a try each for the Redbacks, and the Specialised Quarries and Concrete team’s tries were claimed by Abby McClure and Natalia Smith.

The Redbacks will now take on the defending champs and 2022 women’s season minor premiers Agies Ladies in the grand final.

Those two teams have met twice this season, with Agies Ladies winning on both occasions. They prevailed 9-0 back in August in round two and then won 5-2 in a much closer game in the major semi-final just 11 days ago.

The two sides were also scheduled to meet in round nine, but that was washed out.

The A-grade men’s preliminary final on Monday was contested by Lations and Win Or Booze.

Those two sides had played out an entertaining qualifying final match just two weeks earlier when Lations beat Win Or Booze 5-4, and their next meeting was just as close as Lations prevailed 6-5 to progress to the grand final.

Only Cooper Brayshaw, who bagged a double for Win Or Booze, scored multiple tries in that game as Lations’ six were claimed by O’Shea Green, Jamarl Zarka, Jaylan Sharpley, Declan Rooney, Clifford Toomey Junior and Chris Condran, and Win Or Booze’s other three were shared between Jake Brayshaw, Keegan Richardson and Jakeb Nipperess.

Lations will now meet the Grumley Builders in the A-grade men’s grand final on Monday.

Grumley Builders are the defending champions as well as the 2022 minor premiers and have defeated Lations twice in two attempts this year. Both were tight contests, 3-1 back in September in round seven, and then 7-4 in the major semi-final just a week before the preliminary final. Their round 16 match in November was washed out.

In the B-grade women’s preliminary final, CBRE scored a dominant victory against Touch’n’Go on Monday.

CBRE won the match 8-1 as Jessica Craig scored a hat-trick, Prue Lynch bagged a double and Emma Cain and Ashtine Nott scored a try each. Touch’n’Go’s lone try was scored by Brooklyn Cooper.

CBRE will now take on Blue Birds in the decider on Monday.

Blue Birds won the two sides’ most recent encounter in the major semi-final when they outscored CBRE 3-1. Earlier in the season, CBRE won 5-0 when the sides met in round two back in August and then their round nine match was washed out.

The men’s B-grade preliminary final went to a drop-off on Monday after Ballbusters and Cougars were locked 6-all at full time.
Braedon Mason-Kelly, Dave Toomey and Rob Condran all crossed twice for Cougars, and Connor Parkes scored a hat-trick for Ballbusters, while David Gourley bagged a double and Jack Pixley scored the other.

That saw the match go into overtime and a Paul Bushby try in that drop-off period separated the two sides as the Ballbusters won 7-6.

Ballbusters will now take on the DTA Treated Timber Lumberjacks in the B-grade men’s decider on Monday. The Lumberjacks won 4-2 when the two sides met back in round seven in September, and then their round 16 match in November was washed out. They finally met again on Monday, November 21, when they faced off in a friendly match a week before the semi-finals, and DTA Treated Timber Lumberjacks edged out Ballbusters 8-7.

Following this Monday’s four grand finals, Narrabri Touch will then host its awards presentation.