Of the 14 Northern Rangers teams which travelled to the Oztag Junior National Championships in Coffs Harbour over the weekend, seven made it through to the finals on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
This in itself was reason to celebrate for Tamworth Junior Oztag president, Katrina Davis.
"Qualifying that many teams through to the finals is probably our best performance so far," Davis said.
"We took the largest amount of teams away this year that we ever have, so it definitely shows that our player depth is improving and the quality of our players is improving.
"We've still got a ways to go, but every year you can see that improvement."
The top eight teams from each division progressed through to the finals series after six qualifying games.
All seven Rangers sides bowed out in the quarter finals, as many ran into elite metro opposition, but Davis specifically praised the efforts of the Under 9s Boys and Under 15s Girls, both of whom produced extremely competitive performances.
But more important than the results, she said, was the experience for the players.
"Some of the kids haven't played at that level before, so it was a huge learning curve for them," Davis said.
"But they all stepped up and a lot of the time it's a simple missed tag that can be the difference between a win and a loss, so I think the kids were pretty excited and pleased with their results."
The Northern Rangers sides are made up of players from both Tamworth and Port Macquarie, which are roughly three and a half hours apart.
Though none of the teams allowed it to be an excuse, the distance made training and gelling the sides together a more significant challenge than it would otherwise have been.
"It is always difficult to merge two associations together that are three and a half hours away," Davis said.
"We can't train regularly, and I think that's always going to be an issue for us unfortunately. But that's just the tyranny of distance, and that's what we have to deal with.
"But the kids certainly adapted to not having those teammates around in every training session ... they've definitely adapted to a tough situation that the other teams didn't need to."
Going forward, the Tamworth Taipans will next turn out for the State Cup in June, before the 2022 National Championships will take place in October (last weekend's event was the postponed 2021 edition).
But for Davis, the most pressing matter is the upcoming local competition, which will get underway tomorrow night from 4.15pm at the Plain Street Sporting Fields.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News