Your 2024 NPC & FPC Season
The Farah Palmer Cup presented by Bunnings Warehouse, and Bunnings Warehouse NPC have come to an end for 2024, with both teams in the red and black making it to finals footy and reaching some incredible highs along the way.
You can’t talk about the Canterbury 2024 season without bringing up the debutants, growing both sides and building the future. FPC had an incredible 12 new players to don the red and black, nine who playing their first Farah Palmer Cup tournament. “A highlight for me was so many debutants” says Mona Paraki, Head Coach for FPC, “for them to have that opportunity to play at this level and getting accustomed to the expectations. They thrived in the environment and to see the amount of growth that happened during the season was awesome”. NPC wasn’t without fresh blood with 12 new starters, bringing the grand total of Canterbury Debutants to 24 for 2024. “All those young guys earned their stripes, and definitely deserved to be here this season” says Marty Bourke, Head Coach of the NPC side, “They developed through the different systems we have here in Canterbury and they were ready to come through”.
NPC Round One opened with a bang with Mitchell Drummond running out for his 100th appearance for Canterbury, an incredible achievement for the halfback and a huge honour for the club. “It takes a lot to play 100 games and the commitment and effort requires speaks volumes” says Bourke. Ngatungane Punivai and Rameka Pohipi both made their 50th appearances this season, and a number of players across FPC and NPC received their blazers after 12 games for their side.
The stats certainly don’t lie, with 12 of our players being listed as having some of the best statistics in the tournament! Three players with highest tackles won in the FPC competition were our very own, with Captain Laura Bayfield coming number one with a whopping 167! Two debutants Neve Anglesey and Nicole Purdon came in behind with 147 and 122 tackles respectively. Winnie Palamo dominated the boards reaching 2nd for most tries scored (8), clean breaks (19) and meters gained (665m). NPC Captain Billy Harmon, along with Punivai lead the way making three appearances each in the top ten statistics. Punivai landed third in the comp for number of tries scored (7) and clean breaks (15), Harmon with 134 carries, and 149 tackles won.
With 18 games between the two sides, it might be difficult to pinpoint a favourite moment, but for Paraki it was the bus ride into the semi-final game against Counties Manukau, “the energy felt different” he said, “it’s hard to ignore what happened in that game. I think the whole prep before it, to me that was when I thought ‘Woah. This team is different’.
I had a sense that something special was going to happen”.
For Bourke, it was the connections made and strengthened throughout the campaign with the community, families within the squad and particularly meeting Angus Grant and his parents through Miles Toyota and Ronald McDonald house, “they are an exceptional family and I know I speak for the whole team - it was a privilege to have them join our Canterbury village” said Bourke “it’s even better to see Angus doing well and back on the farm down south looking after his chickens with a long road to recovery ahead of him”.
With the season behind us, both coaches expressed their gratitude to the Canterbury fans and community, “Thank you so much for supporting us, all our girls know that the province and people here were behind us and kept being so supportive” said Paraki, “It really helped us build that self-belief. It shows how much we love rugby here at Canterbury, but also the care we have…you were part of the contribution to where we were able to get to this season. It’s just a matter of trying to do it again and get one further.”
Bourke had similar sentiments, saying “To the fans of Canterbury, thank you for your support – I know it has not always been the smoothest of rides and how we all have an expectation that anyone wearing the red and black of Canterbury has to win, The NPC was awesome this year and the rugby landscape is as competitive as I have ever seen it with any team able to beat another on the day. We constantly strive to be successful and win at all costs but we also never lose sight that one of our important functions is to promote our players to the next professional level, while maintaining a strong link with our clubs and communities”.
words by Hannah Yates