The defending regional champions laid on four tries in the opening 15 minutes to effectively deny the visitors any chance of repeating their semi-final heroics (beating Farrer 2), before running away with the contest 40-6.

Winger Dominic Bower led the try-fest with a double – one in each half – while fellow wing Cameron Mitchell, centres Sam Jackson and Luke Wheeldon, prop Dom Horne, fullback Scott Blanch and half-back Jake Hawkins chimed in with the other tries.

Hawkins crossed as the bell was ringing with a 50m-plus weaving run to complete what coach Gus Comi rated a “pleasing effort”.

Comi couldn’t have asked for a better start, with Horne, Bower and Blanch all scoring inside the first 10 minutes.

Wheeldon’s effort less than a minute later then pushed Farrer out to a 20-nil lead which it held until the final seconds of the half when Michael Skillicorn grabbed Narrabri’s lone four-pointer.

“Our start was good but then we went down to their level a bit,” Comi said.

“There wasn’t enough urgency in the last 10 minutes off the line, and the depth was a little lacking.”

“The second half we fixed that up.”

The second half started in similar fashion to the first, with Mitchell crossing out wide in their second set.

Jackson then ran onto a long ball from Marcus Bower to complete a movement that was started by a charging run from Brett Jarrett after Narrabri had been able to force consecutive sets.

Bower (Dominic) then took advantage of the numbers advantage on the left, as Farrer’s ability to keep the ball alive contributed to some tired tackling from the Narrabri boys.

“The organisation was good. Dutto (Josh Dutton) at hooker and Hawko (Hawkins) at half-back. They set up the play pretty well,” Comi said.

“Marcus Bower had a huge game, especially in defence – he just smacked them – and Dutto was selective with his running.”

“And everyone else did their job.”

Narrabri will now be directing its focus to the University Shield after the mountain of Farrer’s top side proved too big to climb.

They headed into the match a wounded outfit with at least two of their strongest performers absent and prop Brodie Rumsby forced to come off the bench due to injury – not an ideal preparation for facing Farrer, coach Brad Graham said.

“But the boys need to hold their heads high – it was a top effort,” Graham said.

He conceded those early tries were a factor.

“There was a pretty big wind out there and they used it and completed their sets,” Graham said. “We didn’t have any ball for four sets and they got some quick tries.”

A couple of those he felt were a bit dubious, and hurt them, particularly mentally, but he wasn’t taking anything away from Farrer’s performance which affording Narrabri limited attacking opportunities in the opposition half.

They were also unable to stop Farrer’s flow often enough.

“We probably didn’t make enough dominant tackles, which goes a long way to winning the ruck,” Graham said.

“They bumped us off our structure and we went a bit one-out.”

They will next play Coonabarabran in the Uni Shield, while Farrer will tackle Peel High tomorrow week.

Their next Arrive Alive assignment will be against the winner of the Northern Rivers area.