Ask Brewarrina Golden Googars captain Thomas Conroy what footy means to he and his teammates and it becomes clear that it is more than just a game to most of the players in the Barwon Darling Rugby League.
Conroy is in charge of the Googars’ push for success in 2022; his fourth year back with the club after returning to his home town following a stint in Sydney.
He was named best afield on Sunday as the Googars breathed some life into their season with a vital 34-18 win over Newtown; a result Conroy is hoping can kickstart a push to the finals for his beloved side.
“I grew up out here, I’m from here, I lived in the city for a little while but when I finished school I came back and I’ve been doing this for four years now,” the second-rower said.
“It [Rugby League] is so important to these communities, these little towns. It isn’t just something to do on the weekends or anything like that, it brings us all together like brothers basically.
“We just love playing footy, that passion shows on the field and you see that with the other teams in this competition as well and yeah occasionally that passion gets a bit out of control and you see the odd fight or disagreement but it comes down to all these guys just wanting to play for their town and represent where they are from.
“It is just the best feeling running onto that field and pulling on the jersey to represent your town.”
A general bye across most of the competition meant a quiet week in the BDRL however one catch-up game was played after Bree and Newtown had to defer a game earlier in the season due to poor weather.
The Wanderers had been building into some nice form after a narrow loss to Walgett and their first win of the season a week earlier also against Brewarrina, but on their home turf the Golden Googars reversed that result and kept their own season very much alive in the process.
A week before, the two outfits had traded tries in what was a back-and-forth classic, but on Sunday the Googars were in no mood to play tug-of-war and were able to build a good lead against Newtown and keep them at arm’s length for most of the clash.
They were led by second-rower Conroy, who was dangerous throughout the match after crossing for two tries, and he spent a good portion of the game working in tandem with in-form half Diondre Murphy.
Lleyton Callaghan, who starred for Newtown in the first showdown and attracted big wraps from captain-coach Ed Shepherd, again provided plenty of spark for the Wanderers but the team was unable to reproduce their heroics from the previous weekend. They were still competitive but fell short of a second straight victory.
Conroy had a simple answer as to where the game was won compared to the first showdown between the sides.
“The improvement came from a lot of discipline,” he said.
“In the first week there was a lot of excitement in the way we played, we threw away a few tries, didn’t get the result at the end of the game we were looking for.
“This week we come out firing, we wanted to complete more sets and we did that.”
Conroy was dismissive of his own performance and instead gave plenty of credit to his teammates.
“I was lucky enough to score a couple of tries but that was off the back of hard work from the other forwards,” he said.
“Diondre Murphy was excellent. He brings a lot of fire and determination to win no matter what. At times where we are a bit down and lacking motivation, he steps up and gets us going again.”
Though they are off the pace being set by Bourke and Goodooga so far, Conroy believes at full strength his team is good enough to challenge for the title in the men’s competition this season.
“We played Bourke in Round One with low numbers, we had 13 to start and ended up with only 10,” he said.
“They were playing good footy so there is no excuse but with a full bench I think we have a side that can compete with them.
“When we played Goodooga we managed to put a few tries on early, for a long time we were up; we only went down by a few points, the result didn’t show the quality of footy we played.
“We were playing pretty good off the back of the Dragons game; we drew that game 26-all.
“I believe we are coming into some good form, we have a team there and the forwards are working hard to match the Bourke and the guys they have in their pack. Hopefully we can test them out this weekend.”
This weekend sees the men, women and juniors from Bourke and Brewarrina face off in Brewarrina on Saturday; Lightning Ridge plays host to a crucial men’s clash between Walgett and Goodooga; Ridge host Walgett in the juniors and women’s games on Sunday.
BREWARRINA GOLDEN GOOGARS 34 defeated NEWTOWN WANDERERS 18
