Some of the best touch footy players across the North West descended on Narrabri on Saturday when Narrabri Touch held the 2024 Yowie Cup at the Dangar Park rugby union fields.
There were 13 teams in action at the tournament, which competed across three divisions and combined to play 29 matches.
Inaugural champions Euraba went back-to-back to claim the Open Cup competition after the Touchy Tourists had won the Open Plate decider and The Blues had been victorious in the under-16s final.
Narrabri Touch’s president Mereka Gleeson told The Courier that it was an enjoyable day from start to finish, with some super talent and brilliant sportsmanship on show.
“The feedback and the vibe I got was fantastic,” Gleeson said.
“Everyone was having a great time all day and the weather was perfect.
“It was high-quality touch all day, especially in the under-16s.
“It was just phenomenal.
“The grand finals especially were all spectacular games.”
Gleeson said that the event ran smoothly and the goal for 2025 is to attract more teams to join in and run the games across three or more fields, increasing from this year’s two fields.
The 2024 tournament was another memorable one for Euraba, who went through the day undefeated to defend the title they had earned one year, five months and 27 days earlier on March 18 of 2023 when Narrabri Touch held the inaugural Yowie Cup. They took on Dreamtime Touch in the final and won a nail-biter 7-6 after scoring a late try and then defending for 20 more seconds to get the job done.
Euraba is a Tamworth-based team led by Johnny Knox that was started in 1988 by the late Vivian Knox, before her son took over in the mid 90s.
Johnny told The Courier that despite him tearing his calf about 15 minutes into their first game, the event was another memorable one for he and his teammates.
“It was a perfect day for touch,” he said.
“It was a nice day, nice weather, and a nice atmosphere. There were great people there. All very friendly.
“I’d like to thank Narrabri Touch for putting it on and inviting us there. Big praise out to Narrabri Touch. It was just a great day.
“It’s a very good feeling to win the carnival, but it was just good to be a part of the carnival. Just getting to play in it felt like a win.
“The final was a close game and just everything about that final was good. To me, both teams were winners.
“All finals are hard and that one was for sure. I thought it was a good game for people to watch and I thought that the referees did a great job as well. They kept them teams apart a good, solid seven to 10.”
For Knox, carrying on the legacy that was created by his mother so many years ago is a special feeling.
“There’s a very strong family feel to the team,” he said.
“Euraba means healing medicine and it is actually a place where my ancestors are from. It’s about five to seven kilometres out of Boomi.”
The initial plan for this year’s Yowie Cup tournament was for teams to play across opens, over-35s and under-16s divisions, but there were only two over-35s teams and they competed among the open teams.
Eight of the nine senior sides played grading games on Saturday morning to determine if they would play alongside the defending champions Euraba in the Cup competition or line up in the Plate competition instead.
In one of the first two games played on the day, Dreamtime Touch won an all-Tamworth affair 6-0 against one of the two over-35s teams in action at the tournament, Tamworth Titans.
Joining Dreamtime Touch in the Cup division were the Gunnedah Goannas A after they accounted for a Narrabri side, KT Civil, 9-0.
The second set of grading games saw Gunnedah Goannas B join their clubmates in the Cup division as they beat Touchy Tourists, a combined Narrabri and Wee Waa team, 6-3, while Sharks, a mixed Toowoomba/Narrabri/Wee Waa side, downed the Narrabri Yowies over-35s outfit 11-3.
Four of the five Open Cup teams were in action in the division’s first two fixtures. They provided an impressive glimpse of what was to come as the Goannas B side beat their Gunnedah clubmates Goannas A 4-3 in a thriller while Euraba began their tournament with a 3-2 win over Dreamtime Touch.
Sharks had the bye in that opening round and faced the tough test of the defending champions in round two. It was Euraba who came away victorious in that game as they got up 8-4 while Dreamtime Touch won another nail-biting contest 4-3 over Goannas A.
Goannas B went into round three fresh off a bye that did not help them as Euraba outscored them 6-0, while Dreamtime Touch downed the Sharks 6-3.
The round four fixtures then saw the Sharks and Goannas B game end up a 5-all draw while Euraba made it four from four with a 5-2 victory against Goannas A.
Euraba had the bye in the fifth and final round and were joined in the decider by Dreamtime Touch, who scored victory number three in their fourth game of the day as they beat the Goannas B side 5-4.
The final was another red-hot game and was the perfect way to end the Yowie Cup for 2024 as Euraba scored a late winner to beat Dreamtime Touch 7-6 and be crowned champions.
The Narrabri Touch life members were in attendance at the event and they voted on the player-of-the-final in each decider. The panel of Joan O’Neill, Nathan Dicks, Wayne Knight, Wayne Saunders and Mark McLean named Euraba’s Ngulawaa Knox as this year’s recipient of that honour in the Open Cup division.
There were four teams that played in the Open Plate division following the grading games.
The Touchy Tourists and Tamworth Titans both got off to flying starts as the Tourists downed the Yowies 11-3 and the Titans defeated KT Civil 9-0.
The two round one winners then met in round two and it was Touchy Tourists who came out on top as they outscored Tamworth Titans 8-2, while Yowies earned their first win of the day as they took down KT Civil 8-4.
The Touchy Tourists registered an emphatic 13-2 victory in round three against KT Civil to storm into the grand final having won all of their Open Plate division games, while the Titans beat the Yowies 4-1 in the other round three clash to join the Tourists in the decider.
The Tourists then got the job done as they took down the Titans 9-5 to win the Open Plate final.
The player of the final, as voted by the Narrabri Touch life members, was Touchy Tourists’ Tom Nolan.
The under-16s division was hotly-contested as three teams finished on two victories and a loss each, which meant that the grand finalists were decided on for and against difference.
The first two under-16s games saw The Blues take down the Hornets 5-3 and Throwaways beat Fast ‘N’ Loose 9-1.
The second set of under-16s games saw Hornets earn their first win of the day as they demolished Fast ‘N’ Loose 10-2 while Throwaways made it two from two as they edged out The Blues 3-2.
The third set of under-16s games saw The Blues take down Fast ‘N’ Loose 10-4 while Hornets defeated Throwaways 4-1.
That saw Fast ‘N’ Loose end the day without a win and the other three sides end up with two wins and one loss each.
It was The Blues and Hornets that progressed through to the decider, and The Blues got the job done 5-2 to be crowned champions.
The player of the final, as voted by the Narrabri Touch life members, was The Blues’ Kyal Seymour.
Among the highlights of the 2024 Yowie Cup were the dash for cash races, in which prizemoney was up for grabs for the winners. The winners were Ruby Clayton (under-16 girls), Ryan Williams (under-16 boys), Levi Allan (open men) and Shonriqua Hippi (open ladies).
