It is not even Christmas yet, but the Narrabri Blue Boars are already quite busy.
With the Santos Festival of Rugby returning to Narrabri on Friday and Saturday, February 10 and 11, next year, a Central North Rugby Union first grade premiership to defend, and women’s and reserve grade grand final aspirations, there’s plenty for the club to do in preparation for the year ahead.
Narrabri Rugby Club president Mick Coffey told The Courier that the club is excited for 2023 to roll around.
“From an administrative point of view, the summer months are actually the busiest,” he said.
“There’s a lot of hours put in from a lot of people to get us to the point of that first game.
“Add in a big event like the festival, and you’re going to be busy as a club, but that’s good as the festival brings so much to our community as a whole with the economic stimulus it provides across the town on so many levels.
“And that’s before the actual rugby, which is the best part.”
The festival will see two huge days of rugby and live entertainment at the club’s home base at Dangar Park.
The Friday of the festival has been dubbed ‘country day”, which will see the Blue Boars clash with Darling Downs rugby union heavyweights the Roma Echidnas in both men’s and women’s games, NSW Country take on Queensland Country also in both men’s and women’s matches, and a Blue Boars old boys side to take on a team dubbed the Classic Barbarians, which will consist of former NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds and Wallabies players.
At the completion of the on-field action, country music megastar Brad Cox will take to the stage for a concert for all at the grounds.
The Saturday will be jam-packed with exciting rugby sevens matches, leading up to the NSW Waratahs and the Queensland Reds women’s teams’ highly-anticipated XVs game.
The main festival drawcard, which will see the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds go head-to-head for the second time at Dangar Park, will then take place.
Another country music star, Casey Barnes, will close out the festival with a concert on the Saturday night.
“There’s a huge amount of footy to be seen,” Coffey said.
“Plus in the days leading up to the festival, there’s going to be kids clinics, the teams will be around town, the club is holding a women in rugby breakfast along with a couple of other things, so there’s truly something for everyone.
“Tickets are selling quicker than we expected, so there’s a real desire from people to attend.
“The grounds are already looking good, so by February, things will be glorious over there.
“There’s only a few signs that have succumbed to the weather after many years to replace, so local signwriters will have a bit on as sponsors get signs replaced.
“Other than that, there’s just a few repairs and maintenance stuff to do to jazz the place up.”
When asked about the support of sponsors and what they mean to the Blue Boars, Coffey was quite quick to praise.
“We have an amazingly loyal and generous group of sponsors,” he said.
“They recognise we are an amateur club, run entirely by volunteers who are unpaid, yet we aspire to function at a semi-professional level, and they are happy to support that.”
“We are entering our second year of a five-year process to deliver much greater value to all of our sponsors, regardless of their level.
“The intention is to ensure each sponsor feels a deep connection to the Blue Boars and views their contributions as a partnership rather than a donation.
“We advertised a vacant tier two sponsorship position recently, that was finalised within hours of release, and we have a large demand for signs on the fence over there to the point there’s a waiting list.”
Moving past the Santos Festival of Rugby, there’s no rest for the Narrabri Blue Boars.
Before they kick off their 2023 Central North Rugby Union season, there will be the annual clash with St Alberts College for the Hannaford-Southwell Shield, along with at least one other trial match weekend.
The CNRU campaign will begin on Saturday, April 15, with the men’s teams having the bye first up and the women’s team playing against the Gunnedah Red Devils in the first of three extra games across the course of the season for them to ensure there are no extended periods of no rugby due to only six teams entering the women’s competition again.
The first home game of the year will be in the third round on Saturday, April 29, which will see all three grades in action against Scone Brumbies.
If 2022 is the yardstick that the Blue Boars are going to be using, it will be an exciting year and certainly one to follow closely.
Not only did the first grade side win its competition in 2022, the women’s team was narrow runners-up in its grand final, and the second grade side played admirably and is expected to improve significantly next year.
The number of accolades and awards that the club received in 2022 was staggering too.
Seven players plus Wayne Nott were part of the Central North zone’s rep program, Will McDonnell was the first grade player of the match in the grand final, Toni Gale was the highest point-scorer across all competitions, Peta Cox was the best and fairest women’s player across the zone, Felix Cobb-Johnson was the best under-21 player in the zone, and Mick Coffey was awarded the zone president of the year.
One way to summarise the success and passion that sees the Blue Boars followed so strongly locally and be the envy of other clubs both within and outside the Central North zone was captured when Mick Coffey was asked about how he felt when he was named president of the year after the first grade grand final victory back in September in Gunnedah.
“I don’t call it the president of the year award; I call it the club of the year award,” he said.
“You can’t be any good as president unless you have a good club beneath you.
“You really have to have a strong committee, strong coaches, a strong playing group with a good culture.
“If you don’t have any of that, they wouldn’t even look at you for it.
“Even though it’ll be my name on the trophy or shield, we couldn’t do what we do without everyone buying in.”
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