Tallon Smith

Things are slowly falling into place for the South City Bulls ahead of the 2026 season after the club confirmed the return of local junior Luke McBeath as coach of the club’s Great Northern First Grade team.

The signing came a couple of weeks before the celebrations of the Bulls’ 20 year anniversary as a merged outfit in the Group 9 competition this weekend.

Bulls President Peter Ryan said that it will be great to have a local junior at the helm of the club once again when McBeath takes the reins next season.

“He’s a local junior, Lukey,” he said.

“He played in the premiership side in 2016, he’s cousins with Nick Skinner how has coached us, and he’s played with a lot of the boys though juniors and he has a bond with them.

“Then he went up and played in Queensland for two or three years, had a break out of Wagga, and now he’s headed back so we’ve picked him up as coach.”

With McBeath’s arrival confirmed, that means the end of the Cleve McGhie era at the Bulls, though Ryan remained full of praise for the outgoing South City mentor.

“Cleve’s done a great job getting us where we are,” he said.

“It’s more because we’ve lost the 16s, they’ve gone back to juniors, it’s more a fiscal decision than anything else.

“We just have to watch the pennies, because we lost a lot of income because we’re not getting the parents and grandparents through the gates to watch their young fellas.”

As for whether the Bulls can return to the top of the Group Nine tree again in 2026, Ryan said he has full faith in the direction the club is heading as they aim for a return to finals.

“You’re always trying to, your goal is to get into the five [and win] the premiership, every club’s the same, every club works towards that,” he said.

“We’ve been injury plagued this year, that’s no excuse, clubs have injuries, but we’ve had some bad ones which have impacted on us.

“Cody Hodge broke his arm, and things like that, it all impacts on your performance on the field.

“Even Cleve’s been out the past few weeks with a hamstring injury, [and] he’s probably a couple of weeks away from coming back.”

This weekend also marks an important occasion for the South City club, as they prepare to celebrate 20 years as a club.

Founded in 2005 as the merger of the Wagga Magpies’ and Turvey Park Lions’ senior clubs, the Bulls have always stayed true to their identity, offering a pathway to senior football for their two feeder junior clubs.

To celebrate the milestone, the Bulls will don special jerseys this Sunday when they host Young at Harris Park, featuring elements of the Magpies and Turvey colours, with a big crowd expected to turn out for the occasion.

Kick off for the Great Northern First Grade match is at 2:35pm.