The Riverina Bulls women’s rep team for the upcoming NSWRL Country Championships has found a practical way to deal with the tyranny of distance its players face.
Taking in communities from Wagga Wagga north to Temora, Young and West Wyalong, west to Griffith and Hay, south to Albury the response from players to be part of the 2025 Women’s Country Championships starting mid-February has been impressive.
“We’ve already had a meet-and-greet … we had 49 registrations,” said coach Bernie Delaney taking on the women for the first time after a decade with SLE Andrew Johns Cup Under 16s and SLE Laurie Daley Cup Under 18s squads.
“It’s a bit tougher at this time of year because some of our girls have got a lot of travel to do, and we’re getting close to Christmas.
“So with that in mind, we’re doing a sort of satellite thing this time,” he said.
“Britt Everett, our Lisa Fiaola Cup (Under 17s) coach, will do my training program out of Griffith to save the girls from travelling to Wagga all the time.
“I’ll do the same program out of Wagga. We’re aiming to train on Thursdays and Sundays, then hold a few trials.”
Delaney has kept a good slice of the 2024 squad together and has enticed a couple of Fijian players working out at Hay.
“They’re very keen even though they have a four-hour return trip to get to and from training.
“The biggest issue between coaching Laurie Daley and the women is refining the tackle technique. The rest is quite easy as a lot of them have played (League) Tag so they can all catch, pass and run really well.”
For the Riverina Bulls Men’s Country Championships coach, Aaron Gorrell, who is into his third year, he has assembled a squad of around 30 at present but hopes to add to that.
The distances some players have to travel tells him they are committed.
“It’s also about picking the right combinations. You obviously look for blokes who complement each other because you don’t get much time with them before February,” Gorrell said.
“We travel a long way – some of my team have a seven-hour round trip – for a training session.
“It can be hard to juggle but the fact they’re willing to do it, means they’re committed. It means you’re heading in the right direction as a team because they’re doing it for the right reasons.
Gorrell says Riverina will be buoyed by the commitment from the 2024 attacking spine led by halves Kyle McCarthy at five-eighth (pictured above, Photo: Bryden Sharp) and Jordan Anderson at No.7.
“I’m hoping we’ll be close to full strength this time around and if we can do that, I think we’ll compete with most sides. I’m really looking forward to it.
“Two years ago when we made a good run to the grand final (lost to Newcastle Rebels) we had a good buy-in of players.
“If we can get that again I’m pretty confident we’ll be okay.”
Women’s Country Championships preliminary rounds start on 15 February with the grand final on 23 March.
Men’s Country Championships qualifying games start 22 February with the grand final on 29 March.
