Tallon Smith
The Macleay Valley Mustangs will once again have NRL experience at the helm of their first grade side after securing Beau Champion as coach for the 2026 season.
The 11-year NRL veteran returns to the Mustangs after previously coaching the side to a grand final appearance in 2024, before having a year off last season.
In an interview with Battlers For Bush Footy, Champion said that he is “really excited” to be back in the role for this season, as the club continues to build strongly.
“We’ve got a lot of our local boys back this year, so it’s a really good mixture of youth and experience within our club, but it’s also really important for community as well that these guys that are living in community are back playing with the Mustangs,” he said.
“Hopefully we can have a really successful year both on and off the field, and it’ll help us with our pathways as we move forward.”
The Mustangs have also welcomed home a number of local juniors over the off-season, including former Gold Coast Titans winger and back-to-back Nambucca Heads premiership captain-coach Tyronne Roberts-Davis.
Champion said that the return of these players has been a core part of the club’s strategy, which emphasises the importance of building a squad of primarily local players.
“It’s just been a big thing within our community for a long time, we’re a club that’s a community club,” he said.
“We don’t run on budgets like other clubs in our group, we rely on our local players to play for their community and play for the club.
“We’ve been able to grow our club over the last three years, with support of local businesses and sponsors, and the club off the field is in a really good position, and I think that’s pretty evident with these players wanting to come home and play locally.
“The systems and the structures are all set up there for them, and that will help them on the field but also off the field as well.”
In addition to the Mustangs’ first grade signings, Champion said that the club has also seen growth in its lower grades and women’s teams heading into the 2026 campaign.
“Also very exciting this year, we’ve got an Under 18s [side], as well as a women’s tackle, and also a reserve grade [team],” he said.
“We didn’t have an under 18s [team] last year because we couldn’t field the numbers in that age group, but this year they’ve been training fantastic.
“Our reserve grade have also come back in really good condition coming off a grand final last year, so all in all, the club is in a really good position to have a successful season this year.”
With his return to the top job at the Mustangs confirmed, Champion will be one of two former NRL players coaching in Group 3 in 2026, along with Old Bar co-coach Jamie Soward.
Champion said that he is looking forward to the challenge of coaching against his former Indigenous All Stars teammate and NRL rival this year.
“I’ve always had a really good relationship with Sowie and we played together at All Stars, and we also played against each other many a time,” he said.
“He’s a very smart football player and Old Bar have been the benchmark of our competition, them and the Port Sharks, for the past three years.
“They always recruit very strong, they have very experienced players who have been there and done it before, so I think bringing Sowie in there will only help them grow, especially around some of the back five stuff and some of the kicking stuff.
“With his experience, he will be able to pass that on to a lot of the players that are currently there.”
As for what the reigning premier Pirates’ recruitment of Soward means for the rest of the competition, the former Rabbitohs, Storm, Titans and Eels centre said that the continued improvement of the competition’s top sides such as Old Bar and the Port Macquarie Sharks adds another layer on top of the challenge of trying to win the premiership.
“It doesn’t get any easier, we can only control what we can control from our end, but the other teams always get stronger each year as well, so we’re under no illusion as to the task ahead of us, but I think this is the most confident I can go into a season with the roster that we have,” he said.
“It doesn’t guarantee you anything, but the amount of depth that we have and the experience that we were able to blood through last year, it gives us a really good opportunity where we really have all the tools and all the things in the kit bag now, so I’m expecting a really big season from our club.”
The Group 3 draw is expected to be publicly released in the coming weeks.
