Shane Rampling is gearing up for his fifth season in charge of Boggabri and District Rugby League Football Club’s first grade side and he cannot wait for the 2023 season to begin.
Rampling has coached the Boggabri Kangaroos since 2018 and has been instrumental in developing the side from wooden spooners to semi-final contenders.
The side just missed out on a playoff berth in the 2022 Group 4 Rugby League campaign when it placed fifth on the nine-team ladder.
Rampling told The Courier that he was focused on continuing the side’s development in 2023 and cracking the top four.
“I’m very excited,” he said of resigning as Kangaroos coach.
“Since I started, we’ve slowly been on the way up. We’ve picked up more wins each year we’ve gone around.
“I knew it was going to take a bit of time, doing a rebuild, but we are moving in the right direction.
“We are getting to where we need to get to and we’re competing with the big clubs.
“We are quite happy. We’ve got some good players here and a really good committee, and also some great community support.
“I just hope we keep improving this year and get into the top four. That’s the goal.
“We’re going to have to pick up three or four more wins than we did last year, and the boys understand that a lot of hard work will have to go into it.”
The Kangaroos will be boosted by several new faces this year.
The club announced earlier this week that it had signed an experienced duo in prop Dalton Desmond-Walker and lock Ken Hughes, and Rampling said Aaron Hobden would return to the club and that former Gunnedah Bulldog Dylan Lake would be coming on board, as would a couple of players from Coonamble.
“Dalton Desmond-Walker is a really good front rower who’s Australian but has come back from England. He has been playing there for five years at a really high level.
“He’s going to bring a lot of experience and will take the burden off Nick Millar in the front row.
“He’s a really great character and has already jumped into the culture of the club.
“Kenny has a lot of experience as well and we are really happy to have him on board.
“He’s played decent levels back in the day and the boys will learn from him.
“It’s great to have a few older heads around to help out.
“We’ve also signed Dylan Lake from Gunnedah. He’s a brilliant player and I’ve coached him before at Wests in Tamworth.
“He’s got that natural ability and he’s a handful when he’s got the ball.
“He’s electric.”
A significant loss to the Kangaroos is halfback Josh Trindall, who has been instrumental in the club’s rise during the past two years since he debuted in 2021.
Trindall has returned home to the Narrabri Blues and will be their coach for the 2023 campaign.
Rampling said that Trindall would be missed at Boggabri and added that he thought he would do a great job at the Blues.
The two coaches are looking forward to going up against one another this year and are currently organising a trial match for the pre-season. That game is expected to be played on Saturday, April 1.
Boggabri Kangaroos’ pre-season training got underway on Monday evening at Jubilee Oval, and Rampling was impressed with what he saw.
“We had a decent turnout and there were a few new faces, which was good,” he said.
“We had 16 blokes there to start off with.
“There’s still a heap more to come back yet and they’ll start rolling in over the next two to three weeks.
“We are looking alright, and the boys enjoyed the first session back.”
The Kangaroos announced the 2023 season coaching appointments last month.
Joining Rampling in first grade are Jeremey Toomey (assistant coach) and Terry Hynch (manager).
First grade prop Nick Millar is now the club’s reserve grade coach, and Jason Kemp and Craig Summers will be his assistants alongside Ben Haire as manager.
Stephen Merlehan will return as the ladies league tag coach and will be joined by Warrick Chandler (assistant coach) and Courtney Lennox (manager).
Rampling said he was quite happy with those appointments and added that he was excited to help develop all of those coaches.
To order photos from this page click here
