Southern raiders take titles in Murri v Koori contests

Walgett has waltzed to victory in the battle of the men's Murri and Koori carnival champions, while Mungindi earned a narrow win in the women's contest.

It followed a strong win for the NSW Koori Under 16s, avenging their defeat to the Under 16 Queensland Murri from the corresponding fixture last year. 

In the men's Murri v Koori Interstate Challange match, the talented Walgett team flew out of the gates, playing with intensity and power in the opening quarter.

Just a few minutes had passed when forward Jardine Bobongie was turned inside and crashed over for the first try, and the Koori Knockout winners kept the momentum going to put a second on the board in the first 10 minutes.

The Michael Purcell Memorial side was struggling with their discipline and continued to give away penalties, and the pressure resulted in another breach when Ben Barba danced his way under the posts to make it 18-0.

Handling was a problem for both teams after the quarter-time drinks break in the slippery conditions.

Opportunities began to open up again for Walgett when Michael Purcell Memorial went down to 12 men in the 27th minute.

A few minutes later halfback Ben Jones scored under the black dot after slipping over picking up an errant dummy half pass, before getting up and fooling the defence with a dummy to help put his side 24-0 up.

Michael Purcell Memorial finally had something to smile about in the 36th minute when a Shallin Fuller harbour bridge ball found winger Dan West-Pes, who muscled his way over to get his team on the board.

Walgett found their rhythm again quickly on the resumption, earning a set on the attack after an attempted intercept, leading to hooker Jayden Connors diving over from dummy half.

They were on the march again a few minutes later when winger Dennis Dau planted a Windsor Bowie grubber kick, making it 34-4.

Barba added to the pain in the 70th minute after fullback Chris Woodbridge - a Toowoomba Rugby League premiership winner with Dalby Diehards in 2023 - took the bomb and popped the pass to the former Dally M winner for the try.

Stanley Anau finished it off for Walgett with five minutes, ending a dominant performance.

In the women's game, Mungindi leapt out of the gates with two early tries to leave Newcastle Yowies shellshocked.

But the visitors began to find their groove in the soggy conditions as the 2023 Queensland Murri Carnival winners tired, hitting back with two tries to trail 10-8 at half-time.

The two teams traded tries when they returned the field, but a conversion from the Yowies had the scores level at 14-14, before a Tarnayar Hinch long ball to a charging Amelia Harris put Mungindi in the lead with 20 minutes to go.

Newcastle winger Rikka Lamb fooled everyone with a dummy half sneak to get the scores tied again at 18-18, sending it down to the wire just like their respective state finals.

Mungindi took the lead into the last five minutes courtesy of a penalty goal from in front and it was enough for them to hold on for a 20-18 win.

The win was soured by a serious leg injury to Rosie Parsons in the first half and Kiani Duckett being stretchered off in the final seconds.

In the Under 16 Murri v Koori game, the Queenslanders opened proceedings with two early tries as the starting forwards dominated their interstate rivals, but the Kooris fought back and scored a try on the half-time buzzer to take a 16-10 lead.

The NSW side kept the momentum going in the second half, opening up a 32-10 lead before Murri closed to within 10 points with five minutes to go.

A late try to the Koori side made it 36-22 as they claimed the shield, with fullback Dwayne Lyons named player of the match.

Earlier, more underage Queensland Murri sides took on the equivalent representing Rugby League Queensland Samoa, the Murri sides winning four of the five contests.