Group 2 Rugby League: Top talking points from round 12

In his first season as captain-coach, Woolgoolga’s Jake Elphick has certainly made an impression with a major achievement.

Jake Elphick has led Woolgoolga to the minor premiership in his first season as captain-coach. Picture: Leigh Jensen

The minor premiers were crowned and last year’s winners sent another reminder to the competition that they are back in form during round 12 of Group 2 Rugby League.

Catch up on a wrap of the action here and read about some of the top talking points below.

HUGE PRAISE FOR ROOKIE COACH

The skipper has done an excellent job. Picture: Leigh Jensen

Woolgoolga capped off a fantastic season to date over the weekend by claiming the minor premiership with two rounds of the regular season remaining.

The Seahorses have been flawless so far in 2025, winning all nine of their games to take an unassailable lead at the top of the ladder.

It is also a particularly impressive achievement for rookie captain-coach Jake Elphick, who has taken the side to top in just his first season in charge.

Taking over in the off-season from Scott Sinclair, who himself led the club to a drought-breaking premiership in 2023 before backing it up with another grand final appearance last year, Elphick was confident the team would do well in 2025 after agreeing to the job.

“I definitely had high expectations. I knew we had quality players, especially when we made a few late signings,” he said.

“To be still undefeated is quite an achievement and the boys have been great so far but we need to keep getting better and better because Nambucca and Sawtell are getting better at the top end of the table and Macksville is a good side, so we need to be on our game leading into the finals.”

One of the areas that Elphick, a skilful ball-playing forward with a good kicking game, sought to emphasise was defence.

“I feel like we worked very hard on our defence in the pre-season. My focus was to be a good defensive club throughout all the grades, we’ve worked hard on that and it’s starting to come through, which is nice to see.”

The approach has certainly yielded results, with the Seahorses conceding just 120 points from their nine games, at an average of just 13 per game, to be the best defensive side in the competition.

The results paint a quite remarkable picture for the captain-coach, who is just in his third season at the club after relocating to the area from Gundagai ahead of the 2023 season.

“I’m pretty lucky, it’s a pretty good job to have. I’ve got a lot of good players around me and a lot of good players in reserve grade giving me a good choice to select from,” he said.

“The club has backed me with whatever I want to do and also the reserve grade coach has been massive. If I’ve got injuries, they give me the players that I need and then they work with what they’ve got left. There have been challenges, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, but we’re moving ahead nicely.”

Elphick will be looking to go one better this year after playing in Woolgoolga’s grand final defeat in 2024. Picture: Leigh Jensen

Indeed, despite the success and what seems to have been seamless transition, taking on the role of captain-coach has also presented its fair share of challenges for Elphick, who is still in his mid-20s.

“Especially because I’m only young myself, I’m trying to tell blokes who’ve been playing footy for a lot longer than me what to do, and that can be challenging at times as well.

“I’ve also got a lot of blokes who are my really good mates up here and that can be challenging to have those conversations, whether I’m putting them back in reserve grade or something like that.

“There’s a wide range of people in the club – we’ve got 17-year-olds all the way up to Brenton (Cochrane) who’s 41 – and that does have its challenges, especially with myself being quite young.”

And while he is about 900km and a 10-hour drive away from his hometown, Elphick said the close-knit nature of the football club has helped him build a home away from home on the Mid-North Coast.

“Woolgoolga is the closest thing you can get to Gundagai: it’s a very family-friendly, well-backed club and it just feels like home. So I quite enjoy it up here. I do miss home at times, especially during footy season, being my hometown, but I really, really enjoy it up here.”

NAMBUCCA HITTING THEIR STRAPS

Nambucca enjoyed a big couple of weeks against the Rebels. Picture: Leigh Jensen

It was another good week for Nambucca as it hammered South Grafton 68-14 at Coronation Park.

It was the second time in seven days that the Roosters had laid on a big score against the Rebels after last weekend’s 60-0 rout saw the game called off early as the mercy rule was invoked with 13 minutes on the clock.

“I was happy with our attitude,” said coach Warwick Jones. “It’s sometimes tough to play the same team back to back, especially when you have a convincing win the week before, but we were able to put on a good performance.”

The win was Nambucca’s fifth in a row, with the team now giving itself a four-point buffer in second place with just two rounds of the regular season remaining.

Indeed, the result capped off a pretty good run for Nambucca, who scored a remarkable 128 points and conceded just 14 in those two games. It helped the side’s points difference go from just 26 to 140 inside seven days.

When looking at the past five games, which includes the 52-10 win over Grafton that was later taken away from Nambucca for going over its points quota, the Roosters have scored a remarkable 246 points and conceded just 62, at an average scoreline at 49-12. Over this period the team scored a remarkable 45 tries and let in just 12.

For comparison, the excellent ladder leaders Woolgoolga have piled on 176 and conceded 70 in its past five games, scoring 33 tries and letting in 13.

So after a slightly tricky run earlier in the campaign that saw the injury-affected side lose back-to-back games in mid-June, the defending premiers now appear to be peaking at the right time of year.

“I’ve been happy with them all year, to tell the truth,” said Jones. “But I’m really happy to see the boys really starting to come into some good form at this stage of the season.”

REBELS IN NEED OF A LIFT

It has been a difficult few weeks for South Grafton. Picture: Leigh Jensen

On the other hand, it has been a tough few weeks for the South Grafton Rebels, who appear to be on a concerning slide.

Following the impressive 30-22 derby win over the Ghosts three weeks ago, which put the young Rebels in the top four, the side has conceded 184 points and scored just 30 in its last three games to slide down to sixth on the ladder.

Fortunately for South Grafton, its destiny lies in its own hands if it is to qualify for the top five and play finals football, with the team finishing the regular season against Macksville and then Coffs Harbour.

Both sides are just one point ahead of the Rebels, who could possibly qualify for the finals with just one more win.