Lizards have ripper end to season

The Narrandera Junior Lizards had a cracking weekend in the lead up to the grand final at Leeton.

Every junior team is through to the grand final, along with the Under 12 boys.

“It’s non-competitive from nine and under,” said Nicole Warren, Narrandera Junior Lizards Treasurer.

“So with the junior teams’ grand final, the teams are usually drawn from a hat. But Leeton’s hosting this year and they’re going all out, so we’re going, and every team is going to be playing.
“They all get a medallion afterwards and each club supplies the medallions.”

The junior teams don’t have a ladder or teams who are knocked out of the draw, so every team is through by default.

“But the under 12s, they won the Junee knockout, so hopefully they go well.”

The girls mini-league teams have had an excellent season, although one team missed out on the finals through a points technicality.

A request to let a player continue playing despite being outside of the age cut-off was put to the entire league, and two clubs disputed the decision. The girls team had their points removed for the offending game, but also lost points for a bye week.

“That was what we tried to contest. We understood about that particular game, but it didn’t seem fair to lose the bye points too.

“That was very disappointing for the girls,” Ms Warren said.

This past season has been an excellent draw for girls rugby.

“When the women’s Rugby 7s team won the Olympics, all the girls went ‘I want to play that’. We’ve got two teams now.”

The under 11s were beaten by Griffith Black and Whites, which ends their season. The under 12s didn’t play last weekend, as they are already through to the grand final.

Overall it has been a very strong season for the club.

“We’ve had so many people jump on board. We’ve got a lot of new kids playing this year,” Ms Warren said.

The Lizards’ Presentation night will be held in September, but that won’t be quite the end of the season for the club.

“We’ve got a women’s group, and we’re trying to get some fundraising going. So on September 23 we’re having a garage sale at Henry Mathieson Oval, and then that night we’ll have a disco at the club.

“That will work out for everybody; we can get rid of what we don’t want and raise some money for the club.”