Club president Gina Lockyer was awarded a 2017 Newcastle Permanent Contribution to Sport award while the Guyra under 10s rugby league side tied with the Armidale Junior Rams senior league tag side for the Regional Junior Achievement award.

The Guyra under 10s side were recognised for taking out the premiership in their age division without dropping a game.

Lockyer said it was “lovely to be recognised” for all her hard work with the junior rugby league club and heaped praise on the under 10s’ effort in 2017.

“We were battling through the year to get a team [in the under 10s]. We had a lot of under 8s back up and they really deserved to win. It was the icing on the cake,” Lockyer said.

“They are just a beautiful bunch of kids that really listened well to the coaches [Grant and Linley Ryan] and they really played like a team – no one thought they were better than anyone else.

“The coaches were unreal as well, always made sure everyone got a run.”

Lockyer said the club was in a good spot at the moment and were on the lookout for players – for both league tag and rugby league – and coaches for next season. Anyone interested can give Lockyer a call on 0427332037.

Kelsie Youman was also on of the finalists in the junior sports star of the year category.