Next weekend, Ashford will take on Uralla at the Ashford showground. It is a game Ashford president Mick Lewis thinks his club can win, but said the Roosters knew it would be a ‘big ask’ when they entered the Group 19 competition. 

“You’ve got to look at what Ashford is taking on. You’ve got a town of 570 people playing a town like Armidale, 25,000 people or Inverell 12,000 people,” Lewis said.

“We didn’t go into this expecting to win in the competition; we went in to provide our boys with the opportunity to play footy and do the best we could.

“Our outstanding success has been our girls (League Tag), they’re running fourth at the moment and I think there’s a very good chance they’ll make the semis this year, which is a great achievement for the club, and we’re very proud of that.”

For those reasons Lewis remained pleased with a season that had certainly had its moments for the side.

“The boys have performed very well. We’ve pushed a couple of the top sides this year right to the limits,” Lewis said.

“We almost beat the Boomerangs here at Ashford, and if it hadn’t been for a couple of controversial refereeing calls we would have beaten Inverell, and we’ve drawn with Armidale.

“We’ve got a couple of games at home here where we think we’ve got a genuine chance. I think we can beat Uralla here at home and we think we’ve a chance of putting it to Inverell as well. And we’ve got Tingha in the last round at Tingha and we’d like to think we’re a chance of winning that as well.” Lewis said.

The game against Uralla will also be Ashford’s Sponsors Day.

“We’re expecting a big day,” Lewis said.

“We’re very generously supported by a number of businesses in Inverell and we’re putting on a free bus to bring them out. We’ll wine and dine them and we think the boys will put on a big effort to get their first win on that day.”

Lewis considered the support the club received as impressive and said sponsors in both Inverell and Ashford considered the club to be about more than just the football.

“It has a lot of social benefits. It certainly unites the community and gets people together, and people have been very keen to get involved in that spirit,” Lewis said.