When the full-time whistle sounded on Central North Rugby Union’s 2022 grand final day and the Narrabri Blue Boars celebrated their first top-grade premiership since 2015, there was a justified feeling that the day could not get any better.
However, it certainly did.
Once the players had finally stopped embracing each other and their loved ones following their 25-8 victory over the Gunnedah Red Devils, the zone announced several award winners for the 2022 campaign.
Firstly, Narrabri Rugby Club’s Mick Coffey was named the president of the year, and then first XV co-captain Will McDonnell was recognised as the player of the 2022 grand final.
McDonnell’s teammate, winger Felix Cobb-Johnson, was then named the recipient of the Richard Cameron memorial trophy for the zone’s under-21 player of the year.
Earlier in the day, Narrabri Rugby Club’s women’s team co-coach and co-captain Peta Cox was awarded the Rhiannon Byers cup for the women’s competition’s 2022 best and fairest player.
Her fellow co-captain Toni Gale was later named the leading point-scorer for the 2022 campaign across all three grades.
The recognition was well-deserved for five members of the club who work tirelessly both on and off the field.
Coffey was thrilled to be named the president of the year but labelled that award as a club honour rather than an individual one.
“It’s very rewarding,” he said.
“But I don’t call it the president of the year award. I call it the club of the year award.
“You can’t be any good as president unless you have a good club beneath you. You really have to have a strong committee, strong coaches, a strong playing group with a good culture. If you don’t have any of that, they wouldn’t even look at you for it.
“Even though it’ll be my name on the trophy or shield, we couldn’t do what we do without everyone buying in.”
The Narrabri Rugby Club president said that to have two teams in action on grand final day and to then come away with the win in the first grade game was phenomenal.
The best player on the park in that first grade win was McDonnell. The Blue Boars co-captain was brilliant on both sides of the ball and made
superb runs and passes that led to two of his team’s three tries.
He said it was a special feeling to be acknowledged as player of the grand final and that winning the grand final was unreal.
“It’s a bit of a shock, but it’s a really unbelievable feeling, especially in front of family and friends,” he said of the player of the match award.
“To win the grand final is a really proud moment, especially to captain the team today.
“It’s just unreal, especially doing it away from home with all the pressure on us.
“It was very tough, but we kept the foot on the throat.
“I think we did the one percenters better – got off the ground quicker, got around the corner quicker, and we tackled harder.”
McDonnell also commended the travelling Narrabri crowd.
“Our crowd was so loud,” he said.
“You could hear them well above the Gunnedah crowd.
“Everything we did, they were just roaring, and they really brought us home at the end.”
Like McDonnell, Cobb-Johnson was a player who brought the crowd to its feet.
He was one of Narrabri’s three try-scorers on grand final day, which continued a breakout year for the young winger.
He was then awarded the Richard Cameron memorial trophy for the zone’s under-21 player of the year, which Coffey said was special for the player and the club.
“I thought it was great that he won it, especially because it is named after Richard Cameron and Felix is an Edgeroi boy, where the Camerons are from,” Coffey said.
“That’s a lovely local connection.
“He needs to make the most of the trophies he gets because if he keeps playing with the regard for the body he does he mightn’t be around on the field for too much longer.
“He’s really deserved of the award, and he should be really proud of it. He’s had a great year.
“Helen Cameron (the late Richard’s mother, who is a life member of CNRU and the Blue Boars and presented the award to Felix), is a woman who is just Narrabri rugby and Central North rugby personified.
“There’s no one who would have had more involvement in our club and also the zone over the years than the Camerons.
“It was fantastic that Helen was able to present the award on the day.”
Meanwhile, women’s team co-coach and co-captain Cox was outstanding in her second season as a Blue Boar and was proud of her side on grand final day.
“I’m extremely proud of the girls,” she said after going down by seven points against a dominant Tamworth Pirates side.
“We stuck it to them from the very beginning of that game, and we fought right ‘til the very end.
“I’m disappointed with the result, but I couldn’t be any prouder.
“It’s been a great season and it’s been so much fun.
“Everyone plays for each other and we have a great bunch of girls.”
Cox was also pleased to be named the recipient of the Rhiannon Byers cup for the women’s competition’s 2022 best and fairest player.
“I’m speechless. I wasn’t expecting it,” she said.
“I just show up week in, week out and try to play my best.
“I’m not doing it for myself. I just do it for the girls.
“But to get that is special.”
Coffey commended Cox, who he said had set the standard both on and off the field at the Blue Boars in 2022.
“Completely deserved,” Coffey said.
“Every game of football she played this year, which I saw them all except for one, she was just a class above.
“There was nobody else who took football games by the scruff of the neck like Peta did from any club.
“That’s the best, but there’s also the fairest. She’s a lovely person.
“She has a calming influence on our girls. When the chips get a little bit down, I don’t know exactly what she says because I’m not out there, but the team reacts to her.
“She’s a very good rugby person too. If something is on – Peta shows up to help.”
Cox’s fellow co-captain Gale had a year to remember in 2022.
She scored 30 tries in 15 games and kicked a heap of goals too, and ended the year on 168 points. That saw her ranked the top point-scorer across all three grades, one ahead of Gunnedah first grade side captain James Perrett.
Coffey was full of praise for Gale, a player who he described as one of the hardest working at the club.
“One thing that not too many people would know about Toni is how much extra work she puts in,” he said.
“We always talk about the one percenters and doing extra things that will help your game.
“She does plenty of extra kicking practice and plenty of other extras.
“Watching her play, there’s not much of her, but she’s got a massive motor and powerful leg drive.
“She’s an athlete all over and she lives and breathes rugby. She was in our first women’s team back in 2018 and she’s one of the few originals left.
“I think it’s wonderful she won that award, and I think it’s not too long down the track that she could be the first woman at our club to make the 100 club.
“She’s that good of a footballer. She can play for a long time yet.”
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