Tamworth Touch Association teams ready to tackle Country Championships

After taking the first tentative steps back into the championship fold last year only for COVID to intervene, the Tamworth Touch Association will field an open mixed and senior mixed team at Saturday's Country Championships.

TTA committee member Steph Halpin reckons it would be the best part of eight-10 years since the association last competed at a major tournament. They did try to get a side for last year's Country Championships, but COVID derailed those plans.

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"It's been a long time and we saw a need to be reaffiliated (with NSW Touch) and create pathways for our players, particularly our juniors.

"But we've got so many strong senior players as well that it's really important that we foster their goals and their willingess to represent the region as well," Halpin said.

"It's good to give them that opportunity."

Given that it had been so long since they had last sent teams away, she said they didn't really know what to expect putting the call out for players to trial, but were really pleased with the interest.

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"Hopefully if we can create a good culture and a good product then more people will come and we will get stronger and stronger each year and field more and more teams," she added.

The two squads have been training together, under the guidance of Halpin and Jermain Walford, and had they last run last Sunday.

Halpin said it is hard to gauge how they compare to the other sides but said the commitment, culture and willingness to learn from all the players had been absolutely fantastic.

"So I'm confident that we will be competitive," she said.

"Whether or not we can match it with the top teams is soon to be seen."

"But definitely we'll be in a good position to start off well and hopefully take some learnings away from it, moving towards Senior State Cup, which is at the end of the year."

It's a busy time for the TTA.

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It has it's own tournament coming up at the end of the month and recently named six junior squads ahead of their upcoming carnivals.

The mixed opens carnival, which will be held on October 29, was something they started up in 2019.

"It was really small. I think we had like maybe six teams enter and then COVID hit us obviously," Halpin said.

"We just thought we'd get it back on the go again."

At this stage just "a mini one-day carnival", she said into the future hopefully they can attract more teams and expand the categories.

She said there has been "good chat" about it around the teams that play in the local mixed competition. They have also had enquires from Quirindi, Gunnedah and Tenterfield, and knows of a few players coming up from Newcastle.

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