By GEOFF NEWLING

Narrabri Blues arrived at Kootingal Sports Ground understaffed and on the bottom of the ladder in all four Group 4 Rugby League competition grades in round 11 last Sunday.

It’s quite easy to see the Blues are suffering.

They have lost a lot of senior players and officials from last season and that is reflected on the scoreboards in all four grades.

The Bluebirds ladies league tag team is the only side to have chalked up a win, a 14-10 victory over Moree on Bernie Briggs Day in round nine.

All up, the four Narrabri sides have scored 512 points but have let in a staggering 1842 points.

Kristie Toomey is in her first year as club president.

She is also the captain-coach of the Bluebirds and acts as the club’s first aid officer on game days.

It’s a huge ask but she doesn’t shirk her duties in any area. She also stopped for a quick chat with Group 4 Media on a busy Sunday.

Her Narrabri Bluebirds “put in” she said, despite starting the game with 11 players and dropping to 10 through the 54-4 loss.

“It was a great effort, they dug deep,” she said.

The Blues’ juniors lost 48-14 but some of those teenagers also filled in reserve grade and first grade.

Some of the club’s senior players, such as Dylan Segundo, Kurt Bassett and Chris Clark, played in the 38-8 reserve grade loss and then trotted out for first grade.

Clark scored a great try to give his side a 12-10 lead after 15 minutes. He had also figured in the first try that was scored by centre Jess O’Neill.

17-year-old Kaedn Hamilton also played big minutes for Narrabri’s first grade side.

Blues captain-coach Josh Trindall believes Hamilton is a player of the future.

“He’s getting used to the rhythm and pace of first grade,” Trindall told Group 4 Media.

It’s been a tough year for Trindall since arriving from Boggabri to take up his first term as head coach.

His 45th minute try, which was a brilliant individual effort to skip past three tacklers and score beside the posts, lifted his side to within four points when he converted with one of four conversions on the day.

At 28-24, a giant upset was on the cards, but Kootingal steadied and when Blues backrower Ray Goodwin was sin-binned in the 51st minute the home side took charge, running in two tries to take a 38-24 lead and then earning an inevitably a win.

“They played really well,” Toomey said of the first grade side.

“We played well in all four grades though, a few players backed up in each grade, they all dug deep.”

Trindall was once again proud of his inexperienced first grade side.

“We are getting better,” he told Group 4 Media.

“We went close against Norths last week. We’ve been in a lot of games, scored roughly 20 points every game. We are improving game by game and we feel like we can knock a big scalp off.”

Trindall said his side’s aim is to win its last three games of the season – Boggabri (home), Gunnedah (home) and Werris Creek (away).

“That’s our aim, to win our last three and maybe muck up someone’s semi-final hopes,” he said.

With the likes of teenagers Hamilton and Jeff Harvey improving each week and becoming key first grade players in the Blues lineup, Narrabri could well finish with a trio of wins come the end of the season.

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