New Moree Boars captain-coach Ben Williams ready to fire

MOREE Boars have had a slow start to their new Group 4 Rugby League season as they welcome in a new captain-coach.

Ben Williams, who excelled in the recent WEG 9s at Scully Park, will lead the Boars in 2021.

The 27-year-old utility is looking forward to the new season.
“I’m going to give it a good crack,” the yardman at B&W Rural said this week.

“It’s my first time (coaching),” he said.

“My first year back playing league after a couple of seasons playing rugby here (with the Bulls in the Central North competition). They (Bulls) are always strong.

“Then Toddy (Todd Mitchell) gave me a call and had a yarn about it. I had a good think about it and thought I’d give it a go. I haven’t got many years left in me (playing wise) and I think it will be good. We’ve been going since late January and had a personal trainer coming down running them. She’s been real good.”

Jenny Carter has been running the fitness sessions and helping Ben prepare the Boars for their return to Group 4.

“We need to be fit to play in Group 4,” Williams said.

“If we are going to be up there we need to be fit because it is completely different in Group 4 to Group 19.”

New Moree Boars captain-coach Ben Williams takes a tackle for Carey’s Freight Lines during last year’s WEG 9s

A faster and more expansive game awaits the Boars while Ben is hoping for a rise in numbers at training.

“We’ve been getting between 15 to 20,” he said.

“I think a lot of the players are waiting to see who is playing.”

Moree Boars club president and driving force Todd Mitchell believes Ben will be a good leader, on and off the field, for the Boars in their return to Group 4.

Matt Ryan was slated to coach the Boars but it appears he might be selling his business and leaving Moree, Todd said.

“We’ve got Benny to captain-coach,” Todd Mitchell added.

“He’s 27 and been around long enough. He’s got a good footie brain too. Trevor Tighe is going to help him out.”

Tighe is a Group 4 premiership winning forward with the Boars and famously skippered them to a grand final victory against West Lions at Scully Park in 2002. They won 34-18 that day.

While the Boars have had a slow start club president Todd Mitchell said his club is “not alone in that respect” considering the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on everyone and every sporting club around the world.

“We started in January,” he said of the Boars training.

“It’s been a bit of a slow start that’s for sure but everybody is in the same boat. We’ve had a year off, just about everybody else has too.”

He said some of the Boars have been busy playing in a few different sporting competitions but expects the numbers to swell in the next few weeks and is tipping his club to have “between 50 and 60 players by the end of March”.

“We’ve got some good young kids too, between 18 and 20,” Todd Mitchell said.

Words: Geoff Newling