Sam Debenham
Brewarrina Golden Googars will play Bourke Warriors in the men’s Barwon Darling Rugby League grand final this weekend in Walgett after producing an upset in the Preliminary final.
They toppled the Walgett Dragons in their own backyard last Saturday, leading for most of the way before picking up a 36-12 victory, building on a 12-point half-time lead.
Any threat of a Walgett comeback was snuffed out in a clinical second-half performance from the Googars, setting up a mouthwatering main event on the last day of the season.
Four of the league’s six clubs will feature on grand final day, with Lightning Ridge and Brewarrina qualifying two teams each, Walgett and Bourke one.
Warriors president George Orcher says his Bourke side are raring to go for the men’s decider against a team who he knows will be desperate to knock off “big brother” in one of the most storied rivalries in bush footy.
“To be honest after we played Walgett the last time, I thought going into the preliminary final that they (Walgett) might have too much firepower for Brewarrina but they proved that wrong,” Orcher said.
“That rivalry between Bree and Bourke has always been big, I was over there in 1986 and actually went to school in Bree, I’ve played for both towns so I know how much it means to both of them when they play one another.”
For the Bourke Warriors one of the driving forces this weekend – which Orcher admits still stings a lot of his players – will be the two unexpected and heartbreaking losses to Goodooga in the last two grand finals.
They won’t have the benefit of home support on Sunday but they are likely to have a few busloads of supporters heading to Walgett for the decider.
The motivation will be wanting to break a winless streak dating back to their last title in 2018. Since then they have lost three grand finals in total.
Orcher hopes some key players can make a big difference to the result this weekend.
“Sam Canty is one, he will be back from injury, Max Nina at fullback – he actually trained for about 40 minutes after that Brewarrina game was called off (referee couldn’t get there), that’s how keen he is for his footy.
“We’ve got a big supporter base heading over, we are running out of buses and this will be one of our biggest ever away trips I think. Hopefully we can get the prize this time.”
For the Golden Googars their title drought stretches back a year further, to their 2017 triumph which was another against-the-odds effort.
Their back half of the season has been ultra-impressive, winning four of their last five matches.
It’s the sort of confidence that their president Sharon Fox hopes will carry them all the way on Sunday. Oddly, both sides will need to do it without having seen each other in action all season.
“It’s very strange, it adds to the excitement a little bit in a way doesn’t it?” Googars president Sharon Fox said.
“I think if we play at the level we did against Walgett on Saturday we will be able to win, we played exceptionally on the weekend. It was an amazing game and if you could see the way they’ve trained and the effort they’ve put in, they’re ready to go.
“That rivalry I think makes it so enjoyable, there is a bit of that little brother-big brother thing with us and Bourke and it’s good natured but we love to beat each other.”
So seriously are the Googars taking the game, Fox joked, that goalkicker Hudson Boney-Higgins (pictured above) will have a rather important piece of equipment on hand – a kicking tee.
He attempted to convert goals by placing the ball in a spare shoe last weekend.
“Yes yes, we will even have a kicking tee in action this weekend,” Fox said, with a laugh.
“We also have our under 15s girls in the League Tag grand final, a few of them are pretty excited.
“They’re playing Lightning Ridge who are just awesome when it comes to League Tag so if we could somehow beat them that would be just incredible.”
In the women’s League Tag final, Lightning Ridge will play Walgett.
This too has become one of the biggest rivalries in the competition, the two sides splitting the honours in the last two years.
The result as ever will largely depend on how well Walgett can contain Tilah Ciprian as well as the emerging presence of Kristina Pico and Maddy Drew, with Walgett leaning on the experience of Pam Abel and the try-scoring threat of Kiara Smith and Shauri Murphy.
“I think the key for us will be to just focus on defence more than anything and minimising our own mistakes,” Lightning Ridge president Dyane McHughes said.
Sunday’s action gets underway from 11.30am with the under 15s League Tag final, with the Women’s League Tag at 12.40pm, and the men’s game to kick off at 2pm.
