Narrabri Touch’s mixed competition grand finalists locked in

Narrabri Touch will host the 2025 season mixed competition deciders at Leitch Oval next week after three more teams won their way through to grand final night earlier this week.

Cougars, KT Civil and One Hit Wonders were all winners at Leitch Oval on Monday night and will join Hammertime, the Banksia Babes and Blokes and Livewires in the deciders.

The grand final details have not yet been officially released by Narrabri Touch, but they will all be held this Monday, June 23, with the B-grade and C-grade deciders expected to be played side-by-side from 6pm and the A-grade grand final to be played as a standalone match from 6.35pm.

An awards presentation will then wrap up the campaign after the three matches have concluded.

The A-grade grand final will feature Cougars and Hammertime. Those two teams placed second and third on the A-grade ladder, respectively, and they both knocked off the minor premiers Sprayerbarn Spinouts to advance to the big dance.

Cougars and Hammertime met in the first week of the finals series last month and it was Hammertime that got the job done 10-5 to advance to the major semi-final, in which they beat the Spinouts 7-4.

Cougars comfortably defeated Win Or Booze 9-3 in the minor semi-final to advance to the preliminary final, in which they outscored the Spinouts 8-4 on Monday night.

That saw Sprayerbarn eliminated from the finals series in straight sets after going through the regular season undefeated to finish in first place.

Hammertime and Cougars have met three times already this season. The qualifying final victory last month was Hammertime’s first in that rivalry after Cougars prevailed 8-3 in round two and 8-7 in round nine.

The B-grade grand final will see the minor premiers of that division, KT Civil, take on one of the two A-grade sides that dropped into the division for the finals series, Banksia Babes and Blokes.

Banksia placed sixth on the A-grade ladder and were scheduled to meet the seventh-placed JWG Hounddogs in the major semi-final earlier this month, but Hounddogs forfeited and Banksia went straight through.

KT Civil took down second-placed B-grade side RSL Pelicans 7-4 in the minor semi-final and then defeated the Hounddogs 7-5 in the preliminary final on Monday to join the Banksia Babes and Blokes on grand final night.

The C-grade competition was made up of the five lowest-ranked teams from the B-grade regular season, and the two highest-ranked sides from the pack have qualified for the decider.

Those teams are Livewires and One Hit Wonders after One Hit Wonders edged out The Kerrigans 8-6 in the preliminary final on Monday night.

The grand final will be the first time Livewires and One Hit Wonders have met in this year’s finals series. One Hit Wonders were beaten 6-5 by The Kerrigans in week one of the four-week series last month, and The Kerrigans then went down 8-1 against Liverwires in the major semi-final.

One Hit Wonders rebounded from their week one defeat to prevail 9-3 over Touch n Go in the minor semi-final, and they then got the job done by two tries in this week’s preliminary final.

The three grand final qualifiers were all close contests on Monday.

The A-grade game was a fast-paced, entertaining match between two top-quality teams.

Cougars took an early lead in the first minute through Chris Clark and they were in front for the remainder of the 30-minute match. Rya Knox crossed next to give her side a 2-0 lead before Jacob Booby dived over to get Sprayerbarn on the board, but a Tyanna Gaydon double and an Andrew Wallace try saw the Cougars establish a 5-1 lead.

The Spinouts were able to register three more tries, but every time they managed to score, Cougars hit back with another try to restore the four-try advantage.

Jydon Hill made it 5-2 after being put through a hole by Booby on the halfway line and charging away to score, and Cougars responded when Jordan Harvey turned Clark under close to the tryline to create a hole that Clark went through to score his second of the game.

Two brilliant runs out of dummy half from Hill led to tries from Connor Hill and Alissa van-Klooster for the Spinouts, but Clifford Toomey went over between those two to make the score 7-3, and Wallace then wrapped up the scoring with three minutes left to play when he took an intercept on his own tryline and charged away to score.

The B-grade contest was a tight one from start to finish. KT Civil were ahead 6-5 with a few minutes to go when Kurt Wallace crossed for his third try of the game to make the final score 7-5. His teammate Rowan Keeler also finished with a hat-trick, and Andrew Weber crossed for KT Civil’s other try. Ryan McFetridge scored a hat-trick for JWG Hounddogs and their other two tries were shared between Todd McFetridge and Angela Pattison.

The C-grade match was also tight throughout. One Hit Wonders’ Waldo Botha was the first hat-trick scorer of the night in his side’s two-try win, while Matt Hall bagged a double and Kim Bange, Jake Oxley and Annika Gourlay all scored a try each. The Kerrigans’ Jaiden Lovegrove and Chelsea Wheeler bagged doubles in their side’s loss, and Peter Haire and Tanya Nolan claimed a try each.