By Tallon Smith

The Narwan Eels have secured a spot in the Group 19 Grand Final for the second year running after a 26-22 win over the Minor Premiers Guyra Super Spuds at the Guyra Sporting Complex on Sunday.

After being runaway competition leaders and dropping just two games across the regular season, Guyra met their match in the Major Semi Final, with the defending premiers scoring a major upset win to ensure the Grand Final will be held in Armidale again in 2023.

Narwan President Shaun Collins said that making the Grand Final this season was a “massive” achievement given the amount of player turnover following last year’s title.

“Half of the boys went to Guyra, [and] a couple of the boys retired,” he said.

“I’m not too sure if Narwan has ever done this before, back to back Grand Finals.

“It’ll mean a lot for the community.”

Collins said the club’s sustained success over the past two seasons is driven by work ethic and high standards within the playing group.

“It’s just the standard of training, and the way the boys look after themselves,” he said.

“We have high standards.”

Narwan Treasurer and NSWRL Indigenous Volunteer of the Year Candita Collins said that the win was “rewarding for the community” and driven by the club’s positive atmosphere and strong off-field connections.

“It’s just the atmosphere around the club,” she said.

“Being an Aboriginal owned and operated club, we do a lot of off-field stuff, in the areas of healthcare, education, housing and employment.

“We usually get a lot of supporters.”

Collins said the change within the club over the past few seasons has been widespread and overwhelmingly positive.

“The biggest thing that we did when we came on board with the committee was we set some goals,” she said.

“We realised we had to make some changes.

“[We’ve seen improvement in our] community, new players coming in, club initiatives, all rolled into one.

“Heaps of people just put their hand up and said we want to be a part of this.”

Collins said that one common myth that goes around is that the club is for Indigenous players only, when in fact there are many non-Indigenous players at the club.

“That’s a myth we have to overcome each year,” she said.

“We post about it at the start of every season.

“This year in our Under 18s, we have as many non-Indigenous players as Indigenous players, they wanted to come across and play with their mates.”

Meanwhile, the Inverell Hawks have survived Elimination to book a Preliminary Final showdown with Guyra after a 24-22 win over the Moree Boomerangs at Varley Oval on Saturday afternoon.

After a strong regular season campaign, the Hawks warded off the challenge from the Boomerangs to ensure their survival in season 2023, with their next task a Preliminary Final meeting with Guyra.

For the Boomerangs, a season of so much promise comes to an end, with the club performing well enough for a semi-final berth, but falling short of making a second consecutive Grand Final appearance.

Cover Photo: Narwan face Inverell in last year’s Preliminary Final. This photo, taken by Northern Tablelands sports journalist Ellen Dunger of the Armidale Express, is our Facebook cover photo. (Image: Ellen Dunger)