North Tamworth to host Group 4 Rugby League’s grand final

The North Tamworth Bears will host the 2023 Group 4 Rugby League grand final day at Jack Woolaston Oval this Saturday as yet another entertaining season nears its conclusion.

Moree will be in action in two of the four matches on the day as the Boars meet the Bears in first grade and the Dungowan Cowboys in reserve grade.

The Cowboys will also line up in the under-18s grand final when they take on the Werris Creek Magpies, and kicking off the day will be the ladies’ league tag decider between North Tamworth and the Kootingal-Moonbi Roosters.

In all four grades, the teams that finished ranked first and second on the respective ladders at the end of the 14-round regular season have gone on to qualify to compete on grand final day and meet one another again after they faced off in the major semi-finals on Saturday, August 5.

In first grade, the Moree Boars are determined to bring to an end almost two decades of Tamworth dominance when they line up for their first Group 4 grand final appearance since 2004.

North Tamworth have featured in 15 of the past 16 first grade grand finals since then, only missing out in 2010.

They prevailed in 11 of those games, including the most recent seven, and it probably would have been more had the 2020 and 2021 seasons not been cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bears also won four premierships in a row from 2005 to 2008 before the West Tamworth Lions won five on the trot from 2009 to 2013.

The last time a Tamworth side failed to feature in a Group 4 Rugby League first grade grand final was back in 2004 when Moree were beaten 46-10 by the Jamie Lyon-led, Matt Hogan- coached Wee Waa Panthers at Cook Oval.

It was two years earlier in 2002 that Moree won their most recent grand final when they beat the Lions 34-18 at Burt Jovanovich Oval in Moree to complete a minor/major premiership double. Tony Murray was the side’s coach that year.

This season, the Michael Watton- coached Moree team which includes two Narrabri men, former Narrabri Blues and Wee Waa Panthers duo Brenton Cochrane and Daniel Jobson, topped the table after winning 12 of their 14 matches.

Moree finished four points clear of North Tamworth on 24 points but went into the finals series having suffered their only two losses of the season in the final three weeks of the competition.

The second of those was in round 14 when the Boars were defeated 50-32 by North Tamworth, and the Bears beat them even worse a week later in the major semi-final as the defending champions prevailed 40-10 to qualify for their 11th consecutive grand final appearance.

Moree were forced to go through the preliminary final to earn a spot in the decider. In that game last Saturday, the Boars trailed 14-6 at the half-time break before producing a second-half blitz to prevail 42-20.

The North Tamworth men finished second this year on 20 points after they scored 10 victories and lost four times, and they are now hoping to win an unprecedented eighth straight first grade premiership in 2023.

Many doubted their premiership credentials when they kicked off the campaign with a 36-28 loss away from home at Jubilee Oval against Boggabri Kangaroos and went on a three-game losing streak during rounds five, six and seven.

However, they went through the second half of the season undefeated and stretched their winning streak to eight games when they knocked off Moree in the major semi-final.

This Saturday’s decider should be a cracking affair when the team with the best attack this year, Moree, goes head-to-head with the team with the best defence, North Tamworth.

In reserve grade, Moree finished on top of the ladder following 12 wins, a draw and a loss during the regular season. They accumulated 25 points from those results as they finished two points clear of Dungowan, a side that ended up on 23 points following 11 wins, a draw and two losses.

Those two teams met for the third time this year in the major semi-final and it was Dungowan that got the job done as the Cowboys won 30-24 at Boughton Oval.

There was even less splitting them earlier in the year as they drew 26-all first up before Moree scored a 24-22 victory.

The Boars bounced back from their semi-final loss to gain some valuable momentum heading into the decider when they demolished Werris Creek 64-10 in the preliminary final contest last Saturday.

It has been a two-horse race in the Group 4 Rugby League reserve grade competition this year, and now the Moree Boars and Dungowan Cowboys will battle it out to prove who really is the best.

In the under-18s competition, Dungowan have been the team to beat in 2023. The Cowboys finished the season as the undefeated minor premiers with 10 wins from as many matches and a for and against points difference of 428.

They then took down Werris Creek 24-16 in the major semi-final to go through to the decider.

Werris Creek placed second on the ladder on 24 points, four behind the Cowboys, following eight wins from their 10 regular season matches.

Their only two losses came against the Cowboys before they lost to their grand final opponents for a third time this year in the major semi-final.

They bounced back in style with a 32-0 win against Kootingal-Moonbi in last Saturday’s preliminary final, and now they are hoping to cause an upset against Dungowan this Saturday to be crowned premiers.

In the ladies’ league tag comp, the grand finalists North Tamworth and Kootingal-Moonbi both only lost one game each this year.

However, Norths finished a point ahead as they won 13 games and the Roosters won 12 and drew one.

North Tamworth’s regular season defeat was at the hands of Kootingal- Moonbi in the opening round, but the side regrouped and won their next 13 games, finishing the campaign with a for and against points difference of 420.

However, Kootingal-Moonbi won the major semi-final when they outscored the Bears 26-18 to qualify for the decider, and they were joined by Norths after they rebounded with a 12-6 preliminary final victory against Dungowan.

Just like in the grand finals of the other three grades, the two best sides in the competition are now ready to face off for premiership glory at Jack Woolaston Oval on Saturday.