WELLINGTON Bell River coach Nathan Towney is not about to rest on his laurels after guiding his side to victory in last Saturday's Dubbo Waratahs knockout.
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The focus for Towney is now the NARLA (National Aboriginal Rugby League Association) carnival being held at Raymond Terrace this weekend.
This carnival is acknowledged as the biggest and best in New South Wales and most of the teams entered have a fair sprinkle of current and former NRL stars taking part.
Towney knows the opposition will be much stronger than last weekend, but he's hoping for the best.
Wellington dominated their opposition in Dubbo and kept the momentum going right through until the end of the day with an emphatic 44-4 victory over Wiradjuri Speak Chuckers in the final.
Towney, a former Wellington local who now lives in Newcastle and works as deputy principal of the Wadalba Community School on the Central Coast, admits his side last weekend was 'stacked' and he's hopeful most of the players will be available for Raymond Terrace.
"We'll know more later in the week who is available but I'm confident most of last weekend's squad will line up again," Towney said.
"The difference between our side and the others was that all the players have been playing with good sides throughout the winter and they came to Dubbo match fit. That showed in the games we had on the day.
"As a coach my job was easy, all I had to do was rotate the players and watch it all come together."
Shaun Stanley and Mick Peckham were instrumental in putting the side together with a combination of players from Wellington Wedgetails and Bell River Dragons.
One of the players they targeted was Justin Toomey-White the former Group 11 and Western Rams second-rower who this year played with Wyong Roos in the Newcastle League.
He took up the invitation and brought up a couple of teammates to play as well.
Then there was Yileen Gordon, the former Bulldogs, Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs second-rower or centre, who had a fabulous carnival.
"The forwards all day were awesome and Jeremy Smith, the hooker from Dubbo Macquarie, was one of the best," Nathan Towney said.
"Then we had the fast backs to make the play, led by Corey Stanley, Ej Fernando and Swade Dunn.
"But it was Tyrone Peachey who was the player of the carnival.
"He just ran amok and is so strong and was hard to handle. He reminds me a lot like his uncle Mick Peachey.
"Our other advantage was having three Moore Park boys come back here for the weekend, Rick Lyons, Rod Bell and Robbie Ryan all have family in Dubbo and Wellington and they also enjoyed playing with a lot of their mates as well."
