Today, the time of the year has arrived where we recognise the volunteers who make the game of rugby league in regional Australia what it is, with the announcement of the finalists for the 2025 Battler of the Year.

Out of thousands of club volunteers, players and administrators across the country, Battlers For Bush Footy has selected five people, four from NSW and one from Victoria as finalists for the award.

Since its inauguration in 2022, the Battler of the Year award is the most prestigious award given by Battlers For Bush Footy.

All finalists have been assessed as having made an outstanding contribution to the development and conservation of rugby league in a regional location.

As announced yesterday, the award has been renamed to honour Peter “Parra” Montgomery, who dedicated six decades of his life to the game as a journalist, player, volunteer and administrator, contributing an immense amount to the game in Hay, Albury, the broader Riverina and the whole state.

In his later years, Parra spent his time contributing to Battlers For Bush Footy, in its infancy at the time, backing its then 18-year-old editor Tallon Smith by providing both content and support to grow the website.

So, without further ado, here are the five nominees.

Nicole Collins (Tullibigeal-Lake Cargelligo Sharks)

Running a rugby league club in a pair of towns affectionately described as being in the “middle of nowhere” is a tough task. The Tullibigeal-Lake Cargelligo United RLFC, known as the Sharks, are located an hour and a half’s drive north of the already rural city of Griffith, and compete in the Group 20 competition. However, the club’s reach stretches far beyond just the two towns in its name, with players hailing from many surronding towns and villages, including Euabalong, Euabalong West, Murrin Bridge, Hillston and Rankins Springs. Add to the mix a five-team Australian rules competition played on Saturdays before the league on Sundays, and you have the recipe for both a unique sporting culture and some stretched resources to match. Enter Nicole Collins, a loyal servant of the Sharks who has been on the committee for eight years, and the proud mother of three TLU players in sons Todd and Cody, and daughter Jade. Although the Sharkies have been through some of the toughest years in club history this decade, failing to register a finals appearance since the pandemic, Collins shows up each week with a smile and a can-do attitude, ensuring that the club’s players that travel far and wide can take to the field. Therefore, as a result of her commitment to the TLU Sharks as a volunteer throughout the best part of a decade, Battlers For Bush Footy is pleased to announce that Nicole Collins is a finalist for the 2025 Battler of the Year.

Mikey Dynon (Bendigo Crushers)

In 2023, rugby league was dead and buried in Bendigo. More than a decade after the demise of the Bendigo Tigers, The Battler shared a vintage poster for the club on Facebook. Nothing unusual, like many of the historical items we post. However, one set of eyes saw that poster and wanted to change the fact that rugby league in Bendigo was in the past. And just like that, Mikey Dynon set out on a mission to make it part of the city’s present. Through tireless work, countless conversations, and some funny and engaging social media content, he garnered sufficient interest and support to hold an AGM, and a club was born. In true democratic style, he then offered the town the chance to name its team, with “Crushers” winning out due to its ties to Bendigo’s mining history and rugby league through the famous defunct South Queensland club from the 1990s. The Bendigo Crushers took to the field for the first time this season, playing matches against Sunbury and competing in NRL Victoria’s Harmony Cup. Although a groundswell of support is forming behind the club as it prepares to enter the Melbourne competition via third grade next season, none of it would have happened if not for the passion of Dynon, a big Storm and Brisbane Lions fan, to have another sport on offer in the city. Therefore, as a result of his work with the Bendigo Crushers, Battlers For Bush Footy is pleased to announce that Mikey Dynon is a finalist for the 2025 Battler of the Year.

Stevan Cetinich (Orara Valley Axemen)

Four years ago, the Orara Valley Axemen were on top of the world. Coached by Sam Burgess and supported by local resident actor Russell Crowe, the club finished Minor Premiers and contested its first Group 2 Grand Final since 2008, falling to a strong South Grafton side. A year later, the Axemen almost didn’t exist. Booted from Group 2, the Axemen entered no man’s land for two seasons, drawing up an ill-fated merger with fellow recess club Bellingen-Dorrigo ahead of the second which failed before the season began. Hopes looked to be fading for the Coramba-based outfit. However, through it all, one man stood firm in not allowing his local club to die. Such was the passion of Stevan Cetinich, himself a player for Orara, that he would simply not give up until the Axemen were back on the paddock. He fought for reinstatement, both as a standalone club and as part of the “Combined Valleys” proposal with Bellingen, only to face rejection after rejection. Following this, in a final bid to save the small community club, Cetinich pitched the idea to the NSWRL and Hastings League that the club join that competition. In a welcome turn of events, the Axemen were accepted, with Bellingen following, as the competition saw the biggest shake-up in its 105-year history. Two divisions were created to reduce travel, with the league growing from eight to 11 teams. The Axemen weren’t just back, they had breathed new life into an already thriving small-town league. However, Cetinich did not sit back and enjoy his success. Not done yet, he has recently taken on the role of President of the Orara Valley juniors, and is serving as a delegate to the Group 2 Junior Rugby League board, moves he has made to ensure the longevity and health of the game in Coramba. His enthusiasm for the game knows no bounds, and his effort as a volunteer is nothing short of remarkable. Thus, due to this commitment to the game and his local senior and junior clubs, Battlers For Bush Footy is pleased to announce that Stevan Cetinich is a finalist for the 2025 Battler of the Year.

Stephen Howse (Cootamundra Bulldogs)

Rugby league in Cootamundra has had its ups and downs. Local legend Les Boyd vividly recalls having to come out of retirement to help the club through a tough time in the 1990s only for the Bulldogs to recover and win a premiership in 2005. However, the most recent occasion was more serious. When the Bulldogs entered recess in 2020 during the COVID-shortened campaign, uncertainty clouded the club’s future. This uncertainty was followed by the heartbreaking announcement that the club would depart Group 9 after 97 years to join the George Tooke Shield competition run by the Canberra Region Rugby League. People were reduced to tears. One Cootamundra supporter told a young Battler at the time that the Bulldogs would “never go back” to the competition. Enter local railway employee Stephen Howse. Not one to give up despite the disheartening situation, Howse, along with a team of equally passionte Bulldogs supporters, began the long road back to Group 9. It may have taken four long years, but as results improved and employment opportunities lured more players to town, the club made the call to return to its original competition this year. Although it was a tough year for the club’s open age teams, a finals campaign for the club’s League Tag side and an incredible premiership win by the Under 18 team vindicated the hard work, process and eventual decision to return made by the club. Thus, due to this success, as the figurehead of a remarkable committee and group of supporters that wrote one of the best comeback stories in bush footy history, Battlers For Bush Footy is pleased to announce that Stephen Howse from the Cootamundra Bulldogs is a finalist for the 2025 Battler of the Year.

Tom Besgrove (Coolamon Raiders)

For a long time, Coolamon Shire was the missing piece of the rugby league puzzle in NSW. The only local government area north of the Sturt Highway without a team, the region has always been a strange pocket of Aussie Rules heartland north of the Barassi Line. Though there had been two attempts at senior footy in the 20th century, the first beginning in 1924 and the second being the famous Coolamon Raiders who played in five and won two Kennedy Shield Grand Finals in the 1980s and 1990s, the town was rugby league desert throughout the 2000s and 2010s, with keen players forced to travel into Wagga. Enter Thomas Besgrove, a local school teacher originally from Dunedoo who admitted he “didn’t know where Coolamon was” before moving there. A two-time premiership winner with South City in 2016 and 2017, Besgrove was a more than handy footballer in his day, playing in the halves and as a utility. After retiring from local footy to raise a family, Besgrove wanted his three kids to be able to have the opportunity to play the game he loved growing up. However, with the half-hour back and forth trip to Wagga for training and games being a pain point, Besgrove decided to do what no one had tried before: start a junior rugby league club in Coolamon. After launching the club, named the Raiders after its past senior side, and with a little help getting started from the Raiders Old Boys, a thriving junior footy scene grew quickly. The club fielded four teams, under 6s, 7s, 8s and 9s, in just its second year of operations. Now, the club is preparing to welcome its first mod league team, an under 10s side, next year. The junior Although he is now assisted by a hard-working committee, without Besgrove’s passion, rugby league in Coolamon would have remained an thing of the past, little more than a footnote in history. Thus, Battlers is pleased to announce that Thomas Besgrove from Coolamon Raiders JRLC is one of the five finalists for the 2025 Battler of the Year.