Cover Photo: Tom Pattison/Burnt Oak Photography

Tallon Smith

Country rugby league has been rocked by its first major withdrawal ahead of the 2025 season after the Narrabri Blues announced they will not be fielding any teams in Group 4 this year.

In a story in Wednesday’s Northern Daily Leader, the Blues made the shock call public, with the town of 5,500 people set to be the largest in New South Wales without a senior rugby league side this season.

After a strong campaign in 2021, where they finished Minor Premiers in their centenary season before the COVID-19 Lockdown caused the cancellation of the finals, Blues have struggled in recent seasons, missing finals in each of the last three years, including a second-last placed finish in 2024.

The demise of the Blues also comes just one season after local rivals Wee Waa Panthers successfully returned from a seven-year recess to compete in the competition after a push from a group of local Under 18s players to re-form the club.

Speaking to Battlers For Bush Footy on Tuesday, Narrabri Vice-President Matt Keeffe said that the warning signs had been there over the past few seasons, but in the end the combination of external factors was simply too strong.

“It’s been a sort of a steady decline over the years, last year we struggled with filling a reserve grade side most of the year,” he said. 

“It’s just numbers, [there] doesn’t seem to be as many kids and young men that want to actually play. 

“Players also have trouble work wise as well with mines and stuff like shift work, so it creates a bit of an issue there as well.”

One particular issue for footy in the district is that with Boggabri moving up to the First Division in 2018 and Wee Waa re-forming last season, the Narrabri Shire had three First Division teams for the first time this century last year, a situation Keeffe said made it hard for the teams to source players.

“We’ve got three teams that are in the Narrabri Shire, and when you look at how many people are in the Shire, the numbers, you can’t add it up,” he said. 

“It can’t equal three teams with four sides each. 

“It’s just one of those things that, I don’t know what the magic thing is, but we decided this year as a committee to see if we could get the numbers. 

“The magic number was 25, we got the 12, [so] it wasn’t going to work.

“We can’t do that, we can’t run a season with 12 players, so we’ve said basically we’ll sit out this year.”

Another issue has been the broader decline of the game in North West NSW, with many clubs in the region having gone through tough times in recent years.

“It just seems to be lacking further out in the North West in [places like] Moree and Narrabri,” he said.

“I think Coonabarabran is struggling from what I hear, [they’re] having some issues as well with numbers. 

“This has never happened in 104 years of rugby league in Narrabri.”

“Honestly, New South Wales Rugby League needs to have a really hard look at it and start actually pushing out further rather than going to major centres for their development.”

As for the club’s future, Keeffe said the Blues will definitely be back next season, recharged and relaunched as they look to continue the 104-year history of the game in the renowned cotton farming centre.

“We haven’t actually folded, much to [the opposite of] everyone’s reports on Facebook,” he said. 

“We’re going to, as a committee, work our backsides off the next 12 months, rebuild the club so it’s ready to go. 

“We’ve got a coach on board for the next two years, which is Hayden Bell, who is a local kid that is just very, very keen to get it up and running again. 

“We’ve spoken to him the entire time, so he’s on board as well. 

“So we’re going to be proactive over the season to actually get everything ready to go.”

Meanwhile, Blues president Cameron Staines told the Northern Daily Leader that the club’s committee were “gutted” after making the decision.

“[There’s] been 104 years of Narrabri rugby league,” Staines said.

“The whole committee’s just devastated, we never wanted to do it, but there’s too much pride to just have a second grade comp.

“At the end of the day, there’s no commitment in the town, the players are not stimulated, I suppose you could say, to put on the Blues guernsey.”

The decision from Narrabri comes just days after Group 7 club Warilla-Lake South Gorillas announced they would not field a First Grade team in 2025.

Unlike the Blues however, the Gorillas will still field lower grade and female sides in the South Coast competition this season, with a view to rebuild in reserve grade and return in 2026.

In the meantime, Group 4 will proceed with eight teams this season, with a new draw without byes expected to be released over the coming weeks.