THE North Tamworth Bears will line up to defend the premiership in all four grades in the 2017 Group 4 rugby league season, following an unsuccessful attempt to transfer to Group 21.
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The application from the Bears to join Group 21 was denied during a Group 4 meeting at the Gunnedah Services and Bowling Club on Sunday morning.
Bears coach Brad McManus, who didn’t attend the meeting, said afterwards: “They’ve made the decision so we’ll just have to go along with it I suppose.
“We were trying to do something different, (but) didn’t get the votes go our way.”
McManus indicated that the Bears might try again some time down the track.
McManus said there was “no point crying over spilt milk” and that the main thing was that North Tamworth had a competition in which to play.
With the club starting its pre-season training this Tuesday, McManus said “we’ll get ready to have another crack at the title again”.
“We’ll be right to go next year,” McManus said.
North Tamworth, Gunnedah, Narrabri, the South West Robins (formerly West Lions) and Collegian Warriors (formerly Oxley Diggers) will each field three rugby league teams and a women’s leaguetag team while Wee Waa doesn’t have under 18s.
It was already known that Armidale would play in Group 19 rather than have another season in Group 4.
Bendemeer meanwhile was given the green light to play in Group 4 second division, having met its obligations after being suspended for financial reasons.
It was decided that second division would have 11 teams in one tier after last season involved 13 teams across two tiers.
Whilst Wee Waa regained its status as a first division club, Quirindi has not entered a team.
Another notable issue was the decision to adopt the new Country Rugby League (CRL) constitution.
The next meeting, scheduled for December 12, will involve a change from a management committee to a board of directors in accordance with a whole new business module.
In line with the CRL policy, the Country Championships will be limited to players under the age of 23 while there will not be representative honours for players over 23. Players from second division will be a part of the selection process.
An open trial day will be staged at a date yet to be confirmed.
A coach for the under 23 side is yet to be appointed as applications can still be made, while Tim Walsh has been reappointed coach of the Group 4 women’s leaguetag representative team.
As for under 18s, the Greater Northern Academy team will represent the Greater Northern Tigers in the under 18 country championships.
