Narrabri Polocrosse Club has claimed another state championship after the club’s talented under-16s team won the A junior division at the 2024 Club Championships, which was held at Coolah Recreation Ground across the weekend.
The team included Skye Manning, Xavier Scott, Darcy Dickinson, Blake Fielder, Ella Hunt and Pip Cullen, and they were coached by Jamie Ross.
They won their first three matches to qualify for the final as they defeated Quirindi 15-11 in game one, Albury 23-10 in game two and Guyra 13-4 in game three.
Those results saw them progress to the decider, in which they challenged Bunnan and prevailed 16-8 to win the division.
Skye, Darcy, Blake, Ella and Pip are all Narrabri juniors who have grown up together and whose families have been part of Narrabri Polocrosse Club for more than a decade, and Xavier is a New Zealander who is currently in Narrabri living with Graeme and Jen Elford as part of an exchange program. They all combined brilliantly across the weekend to go through undefeated in their division.
They played in two sections across the two days. One of those featured Ella as the number one, Darcy as the number two and Xavier as the number three, and the other had Blake in the number one, Skye in the number two and Pip in the number three.
Ross, who has been a coach at the club for more than 30 years now, was full of praise for the youngsters and their conduct on and off the field.
“They were terrific,” Ross said.
“They could not have played any better for under-16 players. Over 32 minutes of polocrosse, they were averaging 15 or 16 goals, which is awesome.
“I cannot fault them with the way they played, conducted themselves and presented themselves.
“It was definitely a team effort across the weekend. Everybody had a job to do and they did it really well.
“In polocrosse, you like to play with your mates, and winning at the Club Championships carnival is right up there. It’s probably the biggest carnival in NSW, other than the Narrabri Junior Challenge of course.
“It was a great weekend for us. It’s a credit to the kids and their families.”
Ella took out an individual award as she was named best number one in the division. Ross said that was well deserved and he added that any of the players would have been worthy winners of the best in their position.
Adding to the success of the weekend for Narrabri Polocrosse Club was their six teams combining to claim second on the overall champion club points tally. Guyra Polocrosse Club won with 109.5 points and Narrabri were ranked second with 107.5 points. The club in red and white were third last year and are now eyeing off first in 2025.
There were other successful Narrabri Polocrosse Club and Galloping Gully Polocrosse Club teams in action at the 2024 NSW Club Championships.
Gully won the E-grade open division, in which Narrabri were runners-up. Gully were runners-up in C-grade open and Narrabri were runners-up in C-grade mixed.
