Season over for Blue Boars men following elimination final defeats

Narrabri Rugby Club’s women’s team will fly the flag on their own for the remainder of the 2025 Central North Rugby Union finals series after the Blue Boars were eliminated in first and reserve grade on Saturday.

The two sides both travelled to Quirindi for the minor semi-finals of their respective divisions, with Nathan Nott’s reserve grade men downed 32-19 by Tamworth Pirates and Craig Gleeson’s first grade team defeated 36-12 by the Quirindi Lions.

In first grade, Narrabri were determined to get the job done in the elimination clash as the Blue Boars went in search of a third premiership in four seasons, and they started with intent as a Charlie Radford short ball close to the line put a rampaging Joe Baker over to score the first try of the contest in the 10th minute.

Matt Bradshaw added the extras from right in front to make the score 7-0, which became 7-all in the 19th minute when Sam Avard forced his way over and Tom Clare slotted the conversion after play had resumed following a short break for a hail storm.

Clare then kicked the hosts out to a 14-7 lead in the 24th minute after Ed Nankivell crossed for their second try, but the Blue Boars hit back swiftly when left winger James Baker powered his way over in the corner in the 28th minute to make the score 14-12.

A Clare penalty goal on the half-hour mark extended the Lions’ advantage to five points, which then became 10 points when the Narrabri defence was unable to hold out Hamish Dunbar close to the line in the 35th minute.

The score looked set to remain 22-12 at the break but the Lions were able to add seven more points on the stroke of half-time when they won a scrum against the feed and Clare charged over for a try in the left corner and then nailed a tricky conversion to make it 29-12.

Both sides defended well in the second stanza and there was only one try scored, which was claimed by Quirindi’s Nicholas Hooley in the 72nd minute. Clare then nailed his fourth conversion from five attempts to make the final score 36-12.

Gleeson said that while he was disappointed with the way his side bowed out of the 2025 campaign, he was still proud of their efforts this year and said they would be back bigger and better next season.

“It was disappointing, but I have to give full credit to Quirindi. They wanted it, probably more than we did in the end I thought,” Gleeson told The Courier.

“We started really strongly running into a strong breeze in the first half. We were up 7-0 and we were playing some pretty good football.

“We’d just received a penalty and then a little hail storm came across, so they took us off the field. It was only two or three minutes total that we were off the field, but when we came back on, we were flat, and we’d left everything behind that we did well in the first 10 minutes.

“We couldn’t gain any ascendancy at all. Running into that breeze, we struggled to get out of our own end, and we fell off some tackles that we should have been making.

“Our execution all day just wasn’t good enough to win a game of finals footy.

“The first 20 minutes of the second half, we had lots of field position. We were camped down in our attacking 40 metres and we just couldn’t convert it into points.

“We have high expectations at the club every year, and fourth I guess is a disappointing result, especially with the calibre of players we’ve got.

“Given the injuries we’ve had during the year and the inconsistency we’ve had with putting similar football teams on the field every week, fourth’s not a terrible result, but it’s not where we wanted to be.

“The boys were talking after the match and they know they’re a better football side than that, and they have more expectations than finishing fourth, no matter what the scenario is.

“I think they’re already looking forward to next year and rebuilding and being stronger again and taking it up a notch. They won’t want to leave things on that note.

“They are young enough to do that and there’s plenty of football ability in amongst that group to not only challenge for grand final spots, but win grand finals.

“I’ll now do a bit of self-reflection as well. I’ve really enjoyed coaching this team. All the boys are fantastic and they’re supportive of each other and myself.

“They’ve been fantastic this year with their effort and their commitment. We would have had 85 per cent training efficiency at least this year, especially in first grade.

“That’s a fantastic result given what the draw was like and considering how far away a lot of them live and their work commitments.

“For a country football team to approach training with the professionalism that they do, it speaks volumes of those blokes.

“Coaching is something I’ll consider doing again because that’s definitely not how I want to finish coaching, that’s for sure.

“Hopefully a lot of the boys are thinking the same way.”

The Blue Boars’ women’s team will travel to Gunnedah this Saturday to challenge Pirates in their major semi-final.

The winner of that match will progress straight through to the September 7 grand final, and the loser will play in the preliminary final against Gunnedah the following week.

The Red Devils took down Moree Bulls 35-28 in the minor semi-final in Quirindi on Saturday.

The first grade major semi-final this weekend will see Gunnedah and Moree battle for the right to host the 2025 CNRU grand final day. The loser of that match will host Quirindi in the preliminary final the following week.

In reserve grade, Moree will meet Quirindi in the major semi-final in Gunnedah, with the loser of that game to challenge Pirates the following week.