Justin Carney might not be back at the Nyngan Tigers in 2025, but there is still plenty of optimism around the club.
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The former NRL player had been linked with a return to the Tigers after walking away from the final year of his role as captain-coach of Albury, but nothing has been confirmed.
Carney has announced he's moving home to Nyngan due to family reasons, but no conversations have been had with the Tigers at this stage.
The club is already hard at work in the hope of improving on a disappointing 2024 Peter McDonald Premiership season.
The Tigers finished 10th after just three wins but played some of its best footy late in the season.
James Tuitahi has been retained as captain-coach and he will share the role with Tigers stalwart Jacob Neill, while a number of potential new signings are already being chased.
"Midway through last year, everyone was down in the dumps about it," Neill said.
"I think we were all wondering where we were going to end up, but everyone is pretty positive after the way we finished the year.
"We weren't where we wanted to be, but every game they were improving and we've got a good group of young blokes so everyone is bloody keen for it to happen next year."
Neill hinted the club was already close to a couple of signings for 2025 but wouldn't say any more given nothing has been locked in yet.
As for Carney, Neill said the club will likely reach out in the near future to discover his plans for next season.
Carney's time at Albury was heavily disrupted by injuries but he guided the Thunder to finals footy in both 2023 and 2024.
Thunder president Herb Stratton felt the decision to part ways now was the best for all involved.
"I sat down with him a couple of weeks ago and we had a very good talk, a long talk and gave him a little bit of advice that family comes first and the club is bigger than the individual," Stratton said.
"He's done a great job and like me he's big on culture.
"We made the finals this year and I thought we could have gone a little bit further but we didn't.
"Reserve grade played in the grand final and the club is in really good stead.
"There's some really good kids in the 18s coming through, there's probably three or four who I think will play first grade.
"Overall he's done a good job."
Carney played 37 games for Canberra and the Roosters before another 110 games in England with Castleford, Salford and Hull Kingston Rovers.
He led the Tigers to one game short of a grand final place during a successful stint as captain-coach in 2019.
Nick Guthrie
I started working at the Daily Liberal in 2013 and now hold the position of senior sports journalist for Western NSW, covering all that's happening in in Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst and everywhere in between. Contact me at nick.guthrie@acm.media
