Blues, Roos and Panthers to kick off 2025 on home soil

Group 4 Rugby League released their 2025 season draw earlier this week as both the Narrabri Blues and Boggabri Kangaroos discovered they would be hosting home games to open the new campaign.

The Blues will welcome Kootingal-Moonbi Roosters to Collins Park and Boggabri will meet North Tamworth Bears on home soil at Jubilee Oval, both on Saturday, April 5.

However, the club’s first grade sides will have to wait until round two for their seasons to get underway, with the Group 4 first grade teams to sit out in week one.

Their round one fixtures will instead be played across three days in May when the rest of the competition has a bye.

It will be a Magic Round-style event as Scully Park hosts the Group 4 first grade teams on Friday to Sunday, May 9 to 11. Five NSWRL NSW Cup matches will be played across the weekend as well, and Group 4 ladies’ tackle games are also expected to be contested.

That means the Blues’ and the Roos’ first grade sides will take the field for the first time this season in round two when Narrabri travel to take on North Tamworth and Boggabri return home to meet Werris Creek Magpies across the weekend of April 12 and 13.

Wee Waa Panthers will line up for their first games of the 2025 campaign across all grades in the second round after they sit out with the round one bye. They will host Dungowan Cowboys at Cook Oval on Sunday, April 13.

Having the bye in round one means Wee Waa will not feature in one of the four Group 4 games at the Magic Round at Scully Park in May.

The first Narrabri Shire derby of the season will be played on Sunday, April 27, when the Blues welcome the Roos to Collins Park in round three.

The first derby between Narrabri and Wee Waa will be played after the June long weekend on Sunday, June 15, when the Blues travel to Cook Oval to challenge the Panthers in round eight.

The grand final rematch between Moree Boars and Boggabri Kangaroos will then be contested the following weekend on Saturday, June 21, at Moree’s Boughton Oval.

Boggabri have been training hard during the off-season and pre-season and are pumped to go one better this year following their 40-18 grand final loss against Moree in September.

The Roos have trial matches locked in for Saturday, March 15, away from home against Coonamble, and a week later on Saturday, Match 22, at Jubilee Oval (after the local Show and Shine event) against Quirindi (ladies and reserve grade) and Singleton (first grade).

They had another match lined up for Saturday, March 1, but that fell through and the club is now on the hunt for another club to play against on that date.

This year’s Group 4 regular season will be contested across 18 rounds, with the final round to be played on Saturday and Sunday, August 30 and 31.

Narrabri, Boggabri and Wee Waa will all host eight matches at their respective home grounds throughout the home and away campaign and will also travel for eight away games.

All teams will sit out with two byes each.

The season will wrap up with grand final day on Saturday, September 20, following the major semi-finals on September 6, minor semi-finals on September 7, and preliminary finals on September 13.