After six long years in the sporting wilderness, the Wee Waa Panthers are preparing for a return to the Group 4 arena.
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And club president Bill Humphries expects them to be fully stocked.
"We had a bit of a training run [on Sunday] evening to get regos and everything sorted out," he said.
"We should have a girls' team, juniors, reserves, and a first grade team."
Rumours have circulated ever since the Group 4 AGM late last year as to what a Wee Waa comeback might look like.
The club's last season in the competition was 2018, when they fielded reserve grade and league tag teams.
"With the prolonged drought having a huge effect on the local economy and local employment, Wee Waa simply haven't had the rugby league player numbers available to commit to another competitive season in 2019," then-Group 4 chairman, Ray McCoy, said after the conclusion of the 2018 season.
The club had previously been on the brink of folding in 2015 due to a shortage of administrators.
But despite their recent travails, the Panthers have a long and proud history within Group 4, and produced a number of excellent players, including the likes of former NRL, NSW, and Australia representative, Jamie Lyon.
And, after a six-year wait, Humphries said the club's return would be "good for the town", as they have "a lot of little kids who want to play".
For a community the size of Wee Waa, the population of which was measured at roughly 1,500 in the 2021 census, finding enough recruits to fill four senior teams can be a challenge.
Humphries, however, said that there were a number of Wee Waa-based players plying their trade for other teams who were eager to return home.
"We're getting good roll-up when we have training sessions and that," he said.
"A lot of the younger boys were going up to Narrabri and playing, they want to play for their home team now."
While the club is in the process of confirming its coaching appointments, Humphries said they were not yet ready to make a definitive announcement.
After more than half a decade laying dormant, the Panthers are now abuzz with activity. Ever since they got confirmation that their bid to re-enter Group 4 was successful, they have worked tirelessly towards securing both sponsors and players.
But none of it, Humphries said, was possible without their committee or the people on the Group 4 board.
"We've got a lot of good committee people here," he said.
"The Group 4 people have been pretty helpful. [Mark Lyon] and Lad Jones have been pretty good. Very helpful and informative."
