Gleeson pumped for Blue Boars’ pre-season and premiership defence

Pre-season at Dangar Park will begin in a month’s time when the Narrabri Blue Boars get their Central North Rugby Union premiership defence preparations underway on Thursday, February 6.

Head coach Craig Gleeson is back and is relishing the new challenge of being the hunted during the 2025 season after he and his men secured the club’s 14th first grade premiership during a successful 60th-anniversary season in 2024.

Gleeson was reappointed to the role late last year with the full support of the board following his successful maiden campaign in the top job, and he is confident that the Blue Boars can reach the heights of last season again this year.

“It’s an honour to be the head coach of the Blue Boars again,” Gleeson told The Courier.

“I think second year around, after what we did last year, it’s going to be a bigger challenge. I’m really excited to meet that challenge head-on and try to replicate what we did last year.

“I think it’s only natural that you want to defend the premiership, and that’s the challenge presented to each and every one of us at the club this year. It’s obviously the first grade challenge, and our reserve grade are looking to take that next step and go further in the finals.

“As a club, we’ll be doing everything that we can to produce those results.

“Another big aim of ours is to put 80 minutes of football together more often. We weren’t successful in doing that a lot last year. If we can do that this year, we’re going to perform well more weeks than we’re not with the players we have available.

“We probably flew a bit under the radar last year, particularly early in the season, but being the premiers, this year it’s a different look for us. We’re now the ones who’ll be getting targeted.

“We played a bit of a different style last year and clubs will have seen that now, so they’re aware of the style of footy we want to play and how we look, and that means it’s up to us to be a little bit fresh and different this year once again.

“We need to improve and change our style a bit so we’re presenting something different and fresh this year.”

Gleeson advised that pre-season training would get underway on Thursday, February 6, and that the club would hit the ground running ahead of a trip to the Gold Coast on March 8 for a three-way trial against Griffith University and Warwick.

The Blue Boars will host St Albert’s College Armidale at Dangar Park on Saturday, April 5, in the annual Hannaford-Southwell Shield clash, and Gleeson is hopeful that will be their third pre-season hitout, with another being organised for late March.

Pre-season training is also expected to include a water polo session, a boxing session, plenty of ball work and a training session at Rowena followed by a lunch with some of the club’s old boys as Gleeson looks to incorporate plenty of fun and team bonding into the Blue Boars’ 2025 season preparations.

“It’s going to be really awesome to get everyone back together,” Gleeson said.

“It’s a bit surreal really that it’s almost nearly here. It seems like not that long ago that we were all celebrating the premiership.

“The vibe is still going to be there from last season and I know a lot of the boys have done a lot of the work in the gym during the off-season, so they’ll be ready to get out there and run around together and enjoy each other’s company.”

The new CNRU campaign will begin on Saturday, April 26, with Narrabri’s premiership defence kicking off away from home in Quirindi.

The Blue Boars will then line up in back-to-back home matches against Gunnedah and Scone before the competition breaks for the Country Championships on Saturday, May 17.

The 2025 CNRU regular season will run across 14 rounds and will be followed by a four-week finals series, with the grand final scheduled for Saturday, September 13.

Narrabri Blue Boars are expected to retain most of their premiership-winning 2024 roster and Gleeson is hopeful of adding a few new faces to the team as well.

He encouraged anyone considering playing rugby union this year to get in touch with the club’s coaches or committee and to look out on social media for the incoming pre-season training information.