Narrabri Blue Boars ready for a crack at maiden CNRU women’s premiership

Narrabri Rugby Club have reached many great heights and celebrated countless significant achievements during the past 59 years, and now the club is eyeing another major milestone as they go in search of the one piece of silverware that has eluded them in more recent history – the women’s major premiership.

Central North Rugby Union’s grand final day tomorrow at Tamworth’s Chillingworth Oval will kick off with a blockbuster women’s tens decider between the Narrabri Blue Boars and the Gunnedah Red Devils.

Both sides will have a chance to create history on the day as the Blue Boars attempt to win the women’s grand final for the first time since the competition was introduced in 2018, while Gunnedah are determined to become the first team to be crowned women’s premiers twice.

The Red Devils have not won one under the tens format though, with their most recent grand final glory coming back in 2019 via a 20-5 victory against Tamworth Pirates under the sevens format. That was a year after they were beaten 37-5 by Inverell in the inaugural women’s season, and then Pirates beat Narrabri 31-24 in the first tens decider in Gunnedah last year following a two-year COVID-19 hiatus.

Narrabri are also going for their first minor and major premiership double tomorrow after they clinched top spot with a win over their grand final opponents in Gunnedah last month.

Leading the way for Narrabri this year during a memorable season has been the side’s co-coach and co-captain Peta Cox. The former Wallaroos and ACT Brumbies prop, who last year won the Rhiannon Byers cup for the CNRU women’s competition’s best and fairest player, is enjoying her third year at the Blue Boars and second as the club’s women’s team co-coach, and cannot wait to run out onto Chillingworth Oval with her teammates tomorrow.

“I’m super proud of the girls. It’s amazing to make a grand final one year, but two in a row is pretty special, and the fashion in which we’ve done it this year has been pretty amazing with everything that’s happened and the way we’ve all come back together this year,” Cox said.

“It’ll be a very similar-looking team this weekend. We won’t make many changes, and we’ll look to keep it consistent because over this season when we’ve been consistent over a few games, we get a bit of a roll on. Hopefully that will work for us this weekend.

“The way that we played against Tamworth, we don’t want to break that. We’ve kept the spirits high, and we continued at training where we left off from Saturday.

“It’s a pretty hard job for Coff (co-coach and club president Mick Coffey) and I to choose some of those positions, who we are going to play and who may miss out on the day, but at this point of the season, everyone’s aware that they have all had an impact and got us to where we are. Everyone’s still a part of the team on Saturday, whether they get a run or not.

“Gunnedah are a very physical team. They like to truck the ball up in the middle and they have also got threats out wide. We have to not worry about what they’re doing though, just worry about our game and do our little things right. If we execute our game plan and move up in defence and play our attack plays the way we want to play them, I think we’ll get the win.”

The Blue Boars would have been forgiven for treating this season as a rebuilding year following the departures of three key players from last year’s grand final team, including former Wallaroo Kate Brown and Waratahs duo Martha Harvey and Brooke McKinnon. However, they regrouped, and with a few handy additions like Abbey Anderson, Esta Kalatzis, Cassidy Morley, Belle McLelland, Miranda Hamilton and the returning Chelsea Hancock, they came out firing at the start of the season and never looked back as they marched on to a near-faultless campaign, at the end of which they boasted a for and against difference of 540.

It has been a season of rugby that has blown the side’s fearless leader away.

“It does feel like we’ve had a better season this year,” Cox said.

“The girls have all just come together well. We enjoy spending time together and we enjoy coming to training. That’s nothing on Kate, Martha and Brooke, obviously, but we just seem to have gained a few players who have done well, and losing those three players has made others step up and really take control in their positions.

“It’s pretty unreal looking at our for and against. I don’t think many teams can say they’ve had that big a for and against. It’s pretty impressive, and it’s blown my mind really.

“The improvement this season has been amazing. We had two girls who had never played rugby before come into our team and they have gone from strength to strength, and they are so willing to take on board feedback. And then some of the girls that started last year, they’ve only grown as players. Combined with a bit of experience, we are a more rounded team, and each week we get stronger and stronger.

“We have come a long way from the festival (Santos Festival of Rugby) back in February, which was our first game.”

Adding to the occasion tomorrow will see the Blue Boars girls play with the initials of former coach, the late Will Guest, on their uniforms. Guest coached the side from 2020 to 2022 and was a much-loved and highly-respected member of the club. He tragically died last year, and the Narrabri girls will play in memory of him tomorrow.

Narrabri and Gunnedah have been far and away the best two sides in this year’s women’s competition, and they certainly deserve to line up opposite one another tomorrow in the grand final.

It was the Blue Boars who ended up on top of the table to claim the minor premiership by five points. They finished the campaign on 85 points following 13 wins and just one loss, while Gunnedah amassed 80 points, having won 12 games and lost twice.

Both sides beat one another away from home during the regular season. Gunnedah won the first battle 10-7 in round nine back in June, but the Blue Boars bounced back with a 33-24 victory in Gunnedah last month in the 18th and final round of the regular season to clinch top spot of their rivals.

They met again a fortnight later in the qualifying final, and it was Gunnedah who reigned supreme as the Red Devils scored late to win 15-10. Narrabri then joined them in the big dance following last weekend’s 22-12 preliminary final victory over defending champions Pirates in Gunnedah.

Now, a new tens champion will be crowned tomorrow at Chillingworth Oval when the two form teams of the 2023 campaign go head-to-head. The two men’s matches will follow the women’s contest, which will see Tamworth Pirates battle Moree Bulls in both first and second grade.