Veterinarian putting his hand up for Inverell

The 23-year old has been a valuable addition to the Highlanders pack.

His name has often been the first mentioned when asked who the Highlanders’ best was.

“He’s been one of our most consistent players all year,” coach Simon Clarke said.

“His organisation in the lineout and his retaining of ball and stealing ball....”

That was evident in Sunday’s Tier 2 preliminary final against Gunnedah.

Radford was immense at the breakdown and came up with some important steals.

He moved to town to take up a job as a vet.

“I just finished uni and got a job in Inverell,” he said.

Originally from Yetman, he played with Goondiwindi before heading off to uni.

“We’re 60km from Gundy and 150km from Inverell,” he said.

He hadn’t  played for a couple of years though before this season.

He had a few injuries and his studies also kept him pretty busy.

“I’ve enjoyed my time with Inverell. I’ll be back next year,” he said.

“It’s a good way to get involved in the community when you’re new.”

Sunday will be his first grand final.

The Highlanders had to fight hard to get there.

They finished the game with 13 after being reduced to 14 for the last 20 minutes.

And all while holding on to just a seven- point lead.

“I think our defence got us there in the end,” Radford said.

“We pride ourselves on our defence.”

They just kept turning up and making the tackles and really suffocated the Red Devils’ ball carriers.

“We talked about attacking off the line in defence,” Radford said, adding that the only time the Red Devils scored they didn’t do that.

Their defence will have to be on song on Sunday, with the Rams boasting one of the most potent backlines in the competition.

Containing them will be one of the keys for the Highlanders.

“We have to keep our composure and discipline so we don’t end up playing two down,” Radford said.

That did pose some problems aside from the obvious – leaving them short in defence.

Losing a forward made the scrum difficult.

“We were already struggling a bit,” Radford said. “We were getting pushed off.”

The lineout also didn’t function as well as they would have liked.