Three NSW Mid-North coast clubs will be returning to the Hastings District Rugby League this year, which will push the competition up to 11 teams.
The Hastings League’s annual general meeting last month gave the green light to Bellingen-Dorrigo Magpies, Orara Valley Axemen and Lower Macleay Magpies to begin training and ordering jerseys ahead of the season starting on Saturday 12 April.
“It shows Rugby League is alive and well here. We’re an old competition having been around since the 1920,” said Hastings District Rugby League President, Geoff Connor.
“Initially there was some resistance to change (expanding competition) as there’s always been concerns about travel because that means time and money.”
In a bid to help ease travel concerns, clubs will be divided into A and B pools and play against those in their own pool twice before facing the other pool teams once.
“That should limit travel and make things easier,” Connor said.
Two of the three clubs will have president-players in the line-ups as the Axemen’s Stevan Cetinich will be on the wing or at fullback, while Lower Macleay’s Jimahl Toby will be the bench utility.
Bellingen-Dorrigo player Ryan Woods from their 2023 team – the last time the Magpies fielded a senior team – returns as captain-coach for 2025. True Blue Dylan Edwards is a Bellingen-Dorrigo junior.
“It means a great deal to not just the Bellingen-Dorrigo Magpies but also to the Bellingen community to be back playing in the Hastings district competition this year,” President George White said.
“Our squad is very enthusiastic and we intend to be highly competitive.”
Cetinich played in the 2022 Group 2 grand final, when former South Sydney Premiership winner Sam Burgess was coach of the Axemen.
“We’ve never been in the Hastings League,” Cetinich said.
“We’re actually coming from Group 2 and the last time we played was that grand final in 2022 ... which we unfortunately lost to South Grafton Rebels.
“After that season we had a change of executive and coaching positions and things fell by the wayside a bit. We weren’t able to find enough players to field a team.
“But we’re back and now coached by Steve Sanders, who has a long history with Sawtell in Group 2 and won a premiership with their reserve grade. He was involved when we – the Axemen – won both reserve grade and first grade in 2008.
“So he has a soft spot for Orara Valley in his heart to it’s great to have him with us for 2025. We’re just so excited to be back.
“We’ve been in recess for the last couple of years so we’re really keen to just play footy again.
“We want to be competitive. We’re not expecting to take out the competition in our first season but we want to be consistent and get our combinations humming.”
President of Lower Macleay, Jimahl Toby, played in the last Magpies side to make a grand final in 2015. The club has not played in Hastings League since 2021.
“It’s been a bit of a process since we began talks last year, but we’re back,” Toby said.
“There’s such a good group of young blokes coming through and some were missing out on getting the chance to play.
“There’s a lot of former players who still have great respect for the club and want to see it get back to its glory days.”
Lower Macleay has to waits two weeks before hitting the field. They have a Round one bye and then Easter will halt the competition. The Magpies first game will be 26 April.
“What you can expect from us is camaraderie because we intend on making it the family club again. We’ve got a good bunch of boys who are going to have a good crack.
“It’s a young side with only about four or five blokes over 30 including me.”
