BLAYNEY fielding teams across four grades - while that's the long term goal for Ryley Oborn in season 2023 his mission is to make the return of just one group of Bears a success.
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The passionate Bear is the man who has been tasked with coaching the club's league tag side in its return to competition.
While the Bears were crowned Group 10s league tag premiers in 2016 and produced a number of representative stars over the years, last season a lack of numbers meant Blayney was unable to0 form a side.
But the Bears, who have also struggled to fill playing rosters in the Group 10 tackle competitions in recent years, are keen to build.
This season the club is fielding both reserve grade and league tag sides in the new four-grade Western-wide premiership.
As a man who once coached the first grade Bears, Oborn hopes it is a step in the right direction.
"It definitely brings the community together to have a men's side and the league tag girls there," he said.
"Hopefully we can keep building on that and one day get back to having four teams, get an 18s and things like that. The more teams we can get, it just encourages people to come in.
"I think there will be a time we get back to four teams, it won't be in the next couple of years, but I think we can build back into it.
"It's a bit hard because it's a small town, we don't have the same money to put into it as all the big clubs.
"There's not a lot of young fellas coming up, that's the biggest problem, all the old fellas are starting to retire, so it's hard to get a team going."
Getting a team going is something Oborn has been working towards since agreeing to coach the 2023 Bears' league tag side.
While he'd still like to see more players sign up, Oborn is enthused by his new role.
"It's pretty exciting, I've never done it before, so it's something new. I've only coached the men's before," he said.
"They were looking around for a coach and came up to me and asked if I wanted to do it. I thought about it and I thought I may as well, it will give me something to do now I'm not playing.
"We got most of our players from the Community Cup where they played for Carcoar, then it was pretty much word of mouth and people asking.
"We're still looking for numbers, so hopefully we can have a few more turn up too."
Though they did not get many games together in the Community Cup, the Crows tag side was crowned the undefeated premiers.
That experience will help those who have signed on to play as Bears this season.
Oborn still knows that experience is something his side will conceded to many of its rivals this season, but he thinks the raw talent within his squad should mean they are competitive.
"It's quite a new team, I think we've only got one girl who's played for about five years, Lilly Porch, the rest of them have only played one season or less," he said.
"So we're a very young team, I reckon the oldest player - well I'm older than all of them and I'm 24. The average age is probably 19-20.
"We haven't had any trials, but we've been training for about two months. There's always promise, they're young and they're only going to get better.
"They haven't got the most experience, but the more they play the better they'll get. They've all shown a bit of promise, they've got a bit of skill and are all pretty young and athletic.
"The talent will be there, it's just about learning the game. They're very coachable, very easy to talk to."
While Blayney's league tag side will play in the new Western premiership, the draw the Bears have been handed will see them solely taking on Group 10 clubs during the regular rounds.
But Oborn said the focus will just be on getting his players to gel and building as the season unfolds.
"It's not really something we've spoken about, our draw, we don't have to verse a Group 11 team, we've done alright out of it," he said.
"The goal, well I wouldn't mind having a crack at finals obviously, I think we can all train together, work week-in, week-out, we can start winning games and might be able to sneak into the finals at the back end of the year.
"But definitely the first goal is to get a team on the field and have a good crack."
Oborn said any players who are interested in joining the league tag side this season are welcome to attend training on Wednesday from 6pm at King George Oval.
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