The competition is divided into many age groups and our teams compete somewhere in the middle.

“One team is called the Inverell Swans in the Over 35’s competition and then we’ve got the Ducks who play in the Over 50’s,” team member Kerri Tom said.

“Our oldest player would be 62 this year, which is absolutely wonderful.

“We’re strong enough to take two teams away each year.”

Twenty-six players will be heading off again this year and Tom is very optimistic about their chances because many of this year’s team members are those who competed last season.

“Last year we won the grand final and so we’re hoping to back that up with a win again this year,” Tom said.

In fact both teams won their divisions last year and they were playing against teams from much larger centres that have a bigger talent pool to draw their players from. Tom agreed that Inverell is punching above its weight.

“We’re playing against bigger towns that have got 35 and 36-year-olds enrolled, no-one older so we play in a lower division to counteract our age, I guess,” Tom said.

“We’d be playing in the over 40’s if we had three more people the right age, but we don’t in this town. We hold our own for our age.”

The competition has been running for more than 25 years.