Narrabri Eagles to join forces with Moree Suns again this season

The Narrabri Eagles Australian Rules Football Club has well and truly hit the ground running ahead of the 2022 AFLNW campaign.

The Eagles will join forces with the Moree Suns in 2022 for the second season of a joint venture, which sees the two clubs play as one team in the men’s competition named Narrabri Eagles Moree Suns (NEMS).

The agreement means that although the Eagles and Suns play alongside one another, they are able to remain two separate clubs.

The women’s team is still referred to as the Moree Suns, but also includes several players from Narrabri.

The Narrabri contingent of those teams has already returned to the field after Narrabri Eagles’ pre-season training began two weeks ago on Thursday, February 3.

They train each week on Tuesday and Thursday at Leitch Oval, and the club encouraged anyone who is keen for a kick around or to join in for fitness benefits to come along.

Callum Craigie. Callum Craigie.

Blake Sunderland. Blake Sunderland.

Lucy Suttor. Lucy Suttor.

Zoi Banikos. Zoi Banikos.

Sarah Swanborough. Sarah Swanborough.

Andrew Harvey. Andrew Harvey.

Daniel Nixon. Daniel Nixon.

Sophie Donatini. Sophie Donatini.

Eagles president Tom Carberry told The Courier that he and the players are very keen on the coming AFLNW campaign, which will get underway in April.

“We’re very excited,” Carberry said.

“At the end of last year, we were always looking to go ahead with the joint venture again for 2022, knowing what our numbers would be.

“We’ve obviously started pre-season now, which will generate a few more players but not enough to get a full actual Eagles side back in the game.

“Over the past few years, we’ve lost a fair few (players) whether it be through injury, people leaving town or guys just wanting to spend more time with their families.

“But we are trying to rebuild the club and we’ve been getting great interest from the women. There’s been six women down here at training so far after only two played last year so that’s good.

“Then with the men, we’ve still got a lot of the old faces that played last year and hopefully a couple more start joining up. That would be good.”

The AFLNW competition will again feature six teams in 2022. Those are NEMS, the New England Nomads, Tamworth Swans, Inverell Saints, Tamworth Kangaroos and Gunnedah Bulldogs.

Carberry said that he expected the Leitch Oval to have about six home games throughout the season.

And while the Eagles are always on the lookout for more players, they are currently also on the lookout for a new coach.

Narrabri’s Dan Nixon took on a coaching role for NEMS last year, and while he will run the Narrabri Eagles’ pre-season this year, he is hoping to take a step back after the 2022 season begins.

Meanwhile, the Eagles will host their fourth pre-season tournament on Saturday, March 26.

That has rebranded in 2022 and will now be called the Tourist Hotel Cup after it was the Crossroads Cup in 2018 and 2019, and then again in 2021 after the 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve signed the Tourist Hotel on as our major sponsor which we are ecstatic about,” Carberry said.

“We think we are going to have a great relationship with them and we’ve named the cup after them.

“We’re excited for the cup. It’s such a great way to showcase AFL here in Narrabri.

“We’ve invited Goondiwindi and Muswellbrook too which are both outside our comp.

“There should be a fair few teams in the men’s and women’s divisions and we are going to host an Auskick come and try session for juniors throughout the day too.

“It will be a day for the whole family.”