Sylvester Joseph said there are "so many superlatives" he could use to describe the Moree under 16 girls side but settled on "something special".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
From a "rag tag bunch" of rugby novices they are now North West Regional Youth Rugby competition champions.
And in their first year in the competition none the less.
A 24-17 win over the combined Scone/Quirindi side in Friday's grand finals completed their Cinderella season.
It was double delight for the Bulls with the under 14s boys triumphant over Farrer in their grand final 31-20.
In the process they secured the club its first silverware in the four years it has been involved in the competition.
Starting out in 2020 with under 16 and under 14 boys' over that time they have expanded to under 18 boys and now the 16s girls, and grown to over 100 registered players.
And not all just from Moree itself either. Joseph said they also drew players from Warialda, Bingara, Pallamallawa, Terry Hie Hie, even Mungindi, which was a three hour round trip.
This year coaching the under 18 boys as well, in taking on the girls side he did break one of his "cardinal rules", which was to never coach a team that his own child was playing in, with daughter Jenovah the vice-captain.
She was a big part of roping him into doing it and sharing it with her did, he said, make it "even more special".
Finishing the regular season on top of the table with nine wins from their 10 games - their only loss coming in their first game - to say they exceeded expectations would be an understatement. They blew them out of the water.
Not that Joseph really had any with only "one or two" of the girls having really any rugby experience.
"All it was was about giving the girls an opportunity to participate and giving them an outlet to express themselves and bring, I suppose, a bit of parity and equality to the opportunities that are there for the boys," he said.
He said it is hard to put into words "just how massive" the achievement is.
They pretty well had to start from scratch, pulling players from a range of different sports.
"The girls had to learn how to pass a ball; it was like that," Joseph said.
"And to see what they've achieved against teams that had Country reps, had Central North reps, had far more resources, it was amazing."
They were well led by rising AFL star Lauren Appleby, who he labelled, "by far and away" one of the most talented players that he's ever coached.
"She is a girl that will go places," he said.
Previously coaching boys/men's sides one of the things Joseph most enjoyed about the girls was that they are a "blank canvas" and just wanted to learn.
"They were just hungry to learn, really eager to participate and they were competitive. Whatever the boys could do the girls wanted to do it better," he said.
In other results Farrer won the under 16 and under 18 boys, pipping Narrabri 17-14 in the latter, TAS the under 14 girls and Scone the under 18 girls.
RESULTS:
U14 Girls: TAS 39 d Gunnedah 19
U14 Boys: Moree 31 d Farrer (A) 20
U16 Girls: Moree 24 d Scone 17
U16 Boys: Farrer (A) Farrer 30 d Calrossy 3
U18 Girls: Scone 52 d Narrabri 12
U18 Boys: Farrer 1st XV 17 d Narrabri 14