Boggabri and District Rugby League Football Club will go searching for premiership glory in their 110th year as a club in 2026, and at the helm will be Shane Rampling, who was recently locked in as the club’s first grade coach.
Rampling took over at the Kangaroos back in 2018 when they made the leap from the Group 4 second division into first, and he has guided the side from wooden spooners then to the 2024 decider and back-to-back finals appearances.
He is a highly-respected member of the club and community in Boggabri, as well as across Group 4, and he told The Courier that he was proud to have the faith of the Boggabri club.
“The club means everything to me. It’s just a fantastic little club with great people involved, and the community get behind us,” Rampling said.
“We’re an underdog club, and competing with the big clubs is what we’re about.
“Hopefully one day we can win the grand final. A lot of work goes into that.
“The main goal for me next year is to really be competitive again. We don’t want to drop off from this year. We want to stay in that top four.
“Ideally, we’d like to be in the top two, but we’ll be focusing on being super competitive, being hard to beat at home, and making sure that our players improve.
“I’ve pretty much got the commitment that I wanted from the boys. We’ll lose a couple and gain a couple, which is always the way it goes, but the core of the group is staying on board, which is good.
“Greg (Haire) is going around again as the club president and Ash Hynch is staying on as reserve grade coach, so there is a lot of stability there.
“I’m glad that Ash is back with reserve grade. He is a terrific bloke, his knowledge of the game is really good, and he’s a great presence in and around the blokes. He brings a lot of great attributes to the club.”
Boggabri’s club president Greg Haire said he was thrilled to have Rampling back on board and was excited to see what the Kangaroos can achieve in 2026.
“We’re very happy to have him back,” Haire told The Courier.
“He’s great. A terrific fella. He’s great at getting players in. That’s one of the hardest jobs for our club; retaining players and getting new players across.
“That’s a hard job for him, but he does a pretty good job at it. Back in the early days, we didn’t have any paid players. We’ve definitely improved under Shane since then.
“We’re not far away now. We just need to keep plugging away. I thought we were pretty unlucky in that minor semi-final against Werris Creek this year.
“It will be good to see how we can go next year.”
Haire also advised that he was thrilled with the club’s committee heading into 2026.
He thanked Geoff Hobden for his service after he stepped down from the treasurer position, which he had held since 2013. Nick Herring has now taken on that role.
The Kangaroos intend to have a team in the under-18s competition in 2026, with Nick Millar and Jack Hayes to coach that side.
Boggabri had a team in the under-16s division at the junior level this year, and six or seven of those players are expected to make the leap into the 18s next year.
Rampling advised that the Kangaroos will host non-compulsory weekly training sessions each Thursday from November 27 up until Christmas at Jubilee Oval, with official pre-season kicking off on Thursday, January 8.
Sessions will run weekly in January and will ramp up to two sessions a week in February.
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