NIGEL Henley said he was a very proud coach, and part-time player, of the premier rugby union reserve grade team, following the Inverell Highlanders 27-15 win against the Moree Weebolla Bulls at Moree on the weekend.
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It was the club’s first reserve grade premiership in a decade.
Henley said the Bulls had strong home crowd support.
“Narrabri had strong support there too for the first grade fixture,” Henley said.
“Our A grade were up against some pretty strong competition during the year too, and probably didn’t start the season off as well as they could have. But I was lucky enough to have some friends; good players who wanted to stick with it and get into the reserve grade swing of it.
“I was able to qualify some players towards the end of the year to make sure they could play, so yeah, I was pretty happy with it.”
Henley said the last grand final the reserves were in was in 2006.
“We lost that one to Narrabri, and ever since then we haven’t made another grand final,” he said.
“This year’s result is worth it.
Henley said the win probably meant a new lease on life for the club.
“They know they can do it now, and hopefully it keeps the numbers there for next year,” he said.
The highlanders have been rebuilding the club for about three years.
“Our first-grade is only a fairly young first-grade, considering,” Henley said.
“The medium age is probably between 21 and 23-years-old, with blokes a little bit older and a little bit younger. So it’s still a young side, but if we can keep the core of that side together for a few years, they’ve got a really good chance to be a really strong team that’s hard to reckon with.
“They had a few games at home during the year where they didn’t do too badly against your Moree’s and Narrabri’s.
“A bit more experience and the team sticking together would definitely help.