Nymagee local Darby Warner had an illustrious 17 year playing career with the Cobar & Districts Rugby Union Club.
Darby’s contributions to the club will be celebrated as part of the club’s 60 Years anniversary celebrations on the June long weekend.
Darby started playing with Cobar in 1967 and retired in 1983 and played over 300 games in his 17 seasons with the club.
He played in the winning sides in the 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971 and 1976 grand finals and was also a part of the Cobar team that lost the 1970 and 1975 grand finals.
Darby missed the 1974 season as he was out with a broken leg.
He was selected to play representative for Far West-Western Plains for 10 consecutive Country Week carnivals from 1968 to 1979 and played nearly 80 Zone games.
He was selected with the Country training squad in 1976.
He was the Cobar Club Captain in 1979 and the Zone Captain in 1978.
Darby rates his best grand final win as being the 1976 game where Cobar beat Walgett in a low scoring 8-nil game.
He rates former team mate Greg Prince as the best he’s played with.
“He was good enough to play for Australia, he could put it over the best of them with his football brain and his defence was so good,” Darby said of Greg Prince.
“As a captain he was a great leader, always getting the best out of his players,” Darby said. He also said another team mate, Wally Black, was a great forward and he considered Dennis Forbes as the most under-rated player he’s played with.
“You could play him anywhere,” Darby said.
He said the team’s “hardest men” were Terry Francisco and Lang Strange and you could rely on them when the going got a bit rough.
Darby recalls one of his best memories with the club was when he toured New Zealand with the Cobarbarians in 1995.
