Country Origin set to field entire backline hailing from Northern Rivers region

NORTHERN Rivers rugby league will savour a special moment when the final City-Country clash takes place on Sunday in Mudgee.

NSW Country's Northern Rivers products (from left) Cody Walker, Brian Kelly, Cheyse Blair, Michael Gordon, Anthony Don, Mitch Aubusson and Tyrone Roberts. Picture: Gregg Porteous

NORTHERN Rivers rugby league will savour a special moment when the final City-Country clash takes place on Sunday in Mudgee.

Country are set to field an entire backline hailing from the northern NSW region, should captain Mitchell Aubusson switch from second-row to the centres as is widely expected. Aubusson is a Ballina product, as is halfback Tyrone Roberts and winger Brian Kelly.

The other jerseys between No.1 and No.7 are made up of fullback Michael Gordon (Tweed Coast), winger Anthony Don (Grafton), centre Cheyse Blair (Bilambil) and five-eighth Cody Walker (Casino).

Former Murwillumbah junior-turned-representative forward Anthony Laffranchi said there was a wealth of talent on offer across the area’s bush footy clubs.

“I wouldn’t know the number of NRL players that have come out of that area but it is such a great area and it is a big area for talent,” he said, adding the game “brought everyone together” there.

Laffranchi is these days the Gold Coast Titans football manager and is certainly not turning a blind eye to Northern Rivers, where the club has established academies.

“It’s something that we as the Titans really earmark as a great catchment area for us,” he said.

“(We have) our recruitment and development guys go down there and actually deliver some rugby league programs to those areas and I suppose stipulate and identify that there is a pathway from the Northern Rivers to come and play at the Titans.”

Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League under-23s coach Max Beecher, who doubles as Ballina Seagulls president, was proud to see local products earn rep honours.

“It is really good, it inspires all the other young kids to know that they have come through the same system and that they’re playing for the same club that these players once played for,” said Beecher, who coached both Kelly and Walker as juniors.

Beecher said the Seagulls, who are leading the 2017 NRRRL ladder, for example have always been rich with homegrown talent.

But in a world where bush football is being presented with more and more challenges, he called on the NRL to better support country towns – especially as the traditional City-Country fixture is now set for the scrap-heap. “Honestly the NRL has just got to come and have a look what rugby league means to country areas,” he said.

“The more you take away from country rugby league, the less it is going to have that value to people.

“For them to get rid of it (City-Country), I just thought it is a sad part of rugby league these days that it is more a commercial avenue than a game.”

Roberts was another to throw his support behind better opportunities for country football.

The playmaker suggested taking some regular season NRL games to various rugby league heartlands outside of the metro areas.