Eagles almost fly to the top as Crossroads Cup tournament comes to town

The Eagles nearly flew all the way to the top on Saturday when Narrabri’s local Australian rules football club hosted the third annual Crossroads Cup.

While the Eagles will team up with the Moree Suns as a joint venture team during the 2021 AFLNW season, the Narrabri club fielded its own full team in Saturday’s 14-a-side pre-season tournament.

It included several current Eagles players, some returning fan favourites including Daniel Hughes, Todd Fagan and Ben Maddern and a mixture of players from other Narrabri sporting codes including Adam Hennessy (basketball), Nick Smart (cricket), Tim Hayne and Jakeb Nipperess (soccer) and Dennis Gordon (rugby league) who all combined to compete with one goal in mind – to bring the cup home to Narrabri.

And that they almost did.

Four men’s teams took part in the tournament, with eventual champions Tamworth Swans, the Moree Suns and the Gunnedah Bulldogs joining the host club.

After the six matches had concluded and all teams had played against their respective opponents once each, the two top-ranked teams qualified for the grand final.

Those sides were the undefeated Swans as well as the Eagles which won two of their three games.

The big dance was played at the ‘Eagles Nest’ Leitch Oval where a determined Narrabri outfit was downed 5.3 (33) to 5.2 (32) in front of a loud and proud home crowd.

The Swans established an early lead in that decider with a goal and two behinds to lead 8-2 before the Eagles’ danger man Fagan booted two
six-pointers to put Narrabri ahead 2.2 (14) to 1.2 (8).

Another Swans goal locked up the score at 14 points apiece, then Fagan kicked another goal to make the score 3.2 (20) to 2.2 (14) in favour of the Eagles.

The Swans came out firing in the second stanza with two goals in quick succession to establish a six-point lead.

Narrabri’s Adam Picken then levelled the score at 4.2 (26) to 4.2 (26) with his side’s fourth goal.

A Swans goal and behind gave the Tamworth club a seven-point lead, which was the largest of the match, as the scoreboard read 5.3 (33) to 4.2 (26) with five minutes remaining.

The Eagles refused to give up and when Fagan kicked his fourth goal of the game, which was his 14th of the tournament, the deficit was reduced to just one point.

The hosts pushed hard for the winning goal but the Swans defended desperately and were able to hold on to win the 2021 tournament.

Narrabri Eagles president Tom Carberry told The Courier he was proud of the Narrabri men and was pleased with the entire tournament.

He thanked players from all clubs who took part in the event as well as the club’s sponsors and everyone who helped on the day to make it a great success.

The first game was played at 10am on Saturday morning in which the Eagles kicked off proceedings with a dominant win against the Moree Suns.

The Suns scored the first goal in that match then the Eagles scored the next 48 points.

The Suns were able to register a behind just before the horn sounded as the Eagles claimed a 7.6 (48) to 1.1 (7) victory.

The Eagles then took on the Swans in the third game of the day shortly after the Tamworth men had beaten the Gunnedah Bulldogs 9.5 (59) to 4.1 (25) in game two.

The Eagles led the Swans 4.1 (25) to 1.3 (9) at the half-time break and went into the second half full of confidence following their opening game win.

However, the Swans reached another level in the second stanza to outscore the hosts 42 points to 6 and win the match 7.9 (51) to 5.1 (31).

Moree scored a 4.6 (30) to 3.5 (23) win against Gunnedah in game four before being downed 10.4 (64) to 6.4 (40) against the Swans.

Those results meant that a Narrabri victory against Gunnedah in round six would have seen the hosts qualify for the decider.

The Eagles got the job done with the largest winning margin of the tournament as they outscored the Bulldogs 11.6 (72) to 4.0 (24).

Before the men’s grand final got underway, the ladies’ competition decider was contested.

The Gunnedah Bulldogs were crowned ladies’ champions with an 8.7 (55) to 1.3 (9) victory against Moree in that game.