By Tallon Smith

After announcing a triumphant return to football just a matter of weeks ago, the Orara Valley Axemen have taken a different approach, announcing their intention to amalgamate with Bellingen-Dorrigo to form a more sustainable and competitive outfit in 2024 known as Combined Valleys.

As both clubs have been in and out of the competition in recent seasons, the idea of fielding a combined side, as floated by the NSWRL, was accepted by the clubs earlier this evening as they look to remain in the competition in some form despite the challenging times the game is facing in the regions.

Orara Valley President Steven Cetinich said that the move, which has been on the cards for a while, will provide a more sustainable setup for the region’s rugby league community in the short-term.

“This has been in the pipeline for a while, it has come from much higher up,” he said.

“The NSWRL, Group 2 and the North Coast Division have all had concerns about the viability of rugby league in the region here, and certainly between Bellingen and Orara, because we’ve been in and out of the competition a few times over the last few years.

“They’re concerned about the sustainability of each club, so there was a number of suggestions that they put to us formally […] they came to us and said that there’s a couple of options, one is that we re-enter through the Hastings League, which [from the] feedback from our community and players was not a viable option for various reasons.

“The other option was to merge with Bellingen who is another struggling club that’s been in and out of the competition.”

Cetinich said that despite all the hard work the Orara Valley committee had done to almost get the club back as a standalone entity, this was the safer option in the short term.

“There were pretty strong indications that they wouldn’t accept us unless we were to do this,” he said.

“First and foremost, I understand their concerns about long term sustainability, we haven’t had an Under 18s side for probably near 10 years or something like that.

“New South Wales Rugby League have been just incredible in their support [for] this idea, and [they’re] pushing it very hard, they want to continue rugby league and I think [they] probably get some bad raps, and maybe [don’t] get the support they should in country rugby league.

“So I don’t argue with their reasoning on it.”

As for the mascot and colours of the new club, Cetinich said that will be sorted out later on in the process.

“We’ve still got to work out the finer details,” he said.

Group 2 Chairman Warren Gilkinson said that the merger was set to go and all that mattered now was numbers on paper.

“Orara and Bellingen have indicated they are going to merge and be called Combined Valleys,” he said.

“They’ve notified the Group that they’ve come to an agreement, so now we’ll ask them to put on the table what they’ve got, because they’ve got to have three grades, which includes Under 18s, First Grade and another grade. 

“If they’ve got the numbers, it will go ahead, they’ve been in talks, and they’ve come to an agreement today between the two clubs, which is good for rugby league, the more we’ve got playing, the better.”

The new side is expected to begin play in the new Group 2 season next April.