Blue Boars host annual general meeting and begin coach hunt

The Narrabri Blue Boars hosted their annual general meeting last week on Wednesday, October 26, at their home base at Dangar Park, with an online option for those unable to attend due to being cut off by floodwater.

For the fourth consecutive year, Mick Coffey will oversee Narrabri Rugby Club operations as president.

The executive committee has seen some changes though, with Amanda Fowler, Peter Rozendaal and Tim Whan all stepping away from the committee.

“There’s a huge amount of experience now left the room’” said Coffey.

“Amanda has been our secretary for 15 years. That’s a magnificent contribution.

“Her family has now grown up and are busy away from Narrabri, so she’s going to spend more time focussing on them.

“She is a great friend of mine, and I will miss her on the committee immensely, but she’s done more than most and deserves a break.”

Coffey’s closest ally, Tim Whan, has been the club’s vice-president for the past three years, and has played, coached, and administered at the Blue Boars with the president.

“Whanny has plenty on his plate at work,” Coffey said.

“His business is growing rapidly, and he needs to be focused on that.
“He’s one of the greats of the club, and it won’t be the last we’ll see of him, I’m sure. He’ll always be about if help is needed.

“He played a big role in redeveloping our sponsorship program, which helped us generate some much-needed funds.”

The departing Peter Rozendaal has served the club as treasurer for the past five years.

“Pete has done a brilliant job keeping the finances in order,” Coffey said.

“He has a rare knack of being able to explain the club’s financial position to people of all levels of financial literacy on the committee.

“His treasurer’s report at meetings were always very clear, and therefore had everyone feel at ease and get involved, rather than just zone out.”

There is a degree of familiarity with the new executive. Long-serving stalwart Daniel Kahl will take the treasurer’s role, while Alex Reed is the new vice-president (a first for the club to have a female in the position), and Tori Allison will fill the secretary role.

“I’m excited, as are they,” Coffey said.

“DK knows our workings better than anyone and gives us plenty.

“He will be a life member one day. He’s a set-and-forget bloke. Whatever he’s meant to do, he’ll get it done.”

Reed has been on the committee for the previous three years and is also a player and manager in the women’s team.

When asked about her appointment to the role of the club’s vice-president, Coffey was extremely enthusiastic in his response.

“I’m chuffed she’s in the role,” he said.

“She was a bit hesitant for a while – it’s still got a bit of typecast attached to it as far as being a bloke’s role – but women play a huge role in our club, and in recent times, no one more so than Alex, so it’s a no brainer for me.

“Our recent presentation night she organised was the best in years. It was a great way to end the season.

“She’s dynamic, a good thinker, she gets rugby and loves the club. No one is more suited to it than her right now.”

Finally, rounding out the executive committee is another young woman who also plays, Tori Allison.

“Tori is going to be fantastic,” Coffey said.

“She is always there whenever we’ve got a working bee or set up etc,” said Coffey.

He then jested – “after badly injuring her foot at Gunnedah this year, she won’t be playing for a while, so being secretary will maybe distract her from the fact she’s missing out.”

“But to be serious, she’ll do a great job and can always call Amanda if she needs.”

With the highly-anticipated Santos Festival of Rugby making a return to Narrabri in February 2023 following its inaugural success here in 2021, the Blue Boars will need all hands on deck to replicate, and they intend, better, the event in a COVID-19-free environment.

There is also a Central North Rugby Union first grade premiership there to defend, and the women’s and reserve grade teams are eyeing off big seasons too.

The general committee members comprise of Ben Redfern, Tristan Petty, Jenny Schwager, Todd Farrer, Simon Haire, Linton Grumley, Will Guest, Nick Anderson and Breeanna Rose.

“There’s plenty of experience there, plus a couple of new faces, so we’ll hit the ground running,” Coffey said.

“They’re all wonderful club people and bring plenty, so I think we’re in for a cracking 2023.”

2022 club captain Toby Keys rounds out the committee giving the club a solid group, 14 in total.

“When I called for nominations for the club captain, I think every single player in the room said ‘Toby Keys’ in unison, so he didn’t have a choice,” Coffey said.

“Keysie was enormous this year and will be so again next year, I have no doubt.”

The club currently has applications open for coaches and managers until 5pm on Wednesday, November 9.

Coffey’s style has seen the club move away from appointing coaches and managers at the annual general meeting.

He said that he felt it was important that potential coaches, managers and others involved in that side of the club had a chance to see the makeup of the new committee, have a think about the dynamics to make sure they’d be happy to coach with those people in place, and then apply.”

When asked about the interest in coaching positions, one of which is the first grade coaching role that has been left vacant by premiership-winning 2022 coach Jake Packer, the club president was quite bullish.

“There’s some good conversations with some interested people,” Coffey said.

“I’m not losing any sleep over not having decent coaches, put it that way.

“We’ll go through the applications after they close.

“We’ll make appointments and then announce them in due time after that, we’re not locking ourselves into a date.”

Meanwhile, the Central North zone annual general meeting will be held this Sunday, November 6, in Barraba. Coffey and Reed will both travel to attend.

The key areas of focus will be determining the length of the season, a competition starting date, zone representative rugby and the Central North Referees academy.

“I feel the biggest issue we have as a zone is referees,” Coffey said.

“They aren’t getting any younger, and there aren’t enough new recruits coming through.

“We had our own referee academy here at Narrabri a couple of years ago. It was successful, but we didn’t run it last year so as not to clash with anything that the zone or the referees association might have wanted to do.

“We’ll see how [this] Sunday goes, but if we feel we can do a bit more by running our own in conjunction, we’ll have a look at our options.”

“The zone representative teams continue to improve, but there’s still a way to go.

“We’ve got eight or nine blokes that should have been in the Kookaburras, and probably six or seven women too, so it needs to be attractive for them.

“Playing rep footy undoubtedly makes better footballers overall, so I’d love to see them all roll the sleeves up and play for the zone next year.”