The southern area Country Rugby League Group championships were held at Albury on Saturday 17th and 18th of May. Matthew Duggan and Dylan Jones represented Group 10 in the Under 13’s. These two young men had represented Group 10 in 2007 and they were keen to go round again. This team is selected from towns in the Central West including Orange, Bathurst, Mudgee, Cowra, Lithgow and Oberon.
Matt and Dylan were selected to play in the train-on squad in February after the two young men played strongly at the group trials. With lots of commitment from Matt, Dylan and their families the boys trained most Sunday’s mornings in the lead up to this carnival at Bathurst (yes, even Mother’s Day). They also played trial games against Group 6 which is the Campbelltown area in Sydney, Group 11 which is Western NSW as well as taking on a combined Cowra unit. With these good lead up games the Group 10 side were confident of a strong performance at Albury.
A bonding night was held on the Friday night prior to the carnival with the team coming together for dinner and to watch the mighty Roosters get a win in Friday night footy, with Willie Mason a no show at the bonding session due to work commitments all the players managed to stay out of trouble the same could not be said of the coaching staff who were heard to be still discussing team tactics at 4 in the morning.
Dylan and Matt had been selected in the starting 13 with both men up front. Dylan at prop and Matt at hooker. On Saturday afternoon their first game was against Group 11, in between cold windy intermittent rain a hard fought 4 all draw was played out. Discipline being an issue for the Group 10 side as they gave away too many penalties allowing their opposition into the game.
On Sunday morning our next game was against Group 20 which is from the Riverina area in South West NSW. The 10 boys hit form and had a great win 36 to 10 with the whole side playing strongly.
Later in the morning a tough game was ahead of the boys against Group 9 which is a very strong group drawing players from towns such as Young through to Wagga, Junee and all the way to the NSW border at Albury. This group hosted the carnival and was not keen to lose on home soil. A try to group 9 shortly after the kick off had 10 going backwards. This try switched the 10 boys on and in a great performance they ran out winner 38 to 22. Group 10 out played and out muscled their opposition and only allowed two late tries to the Group 9 boys which made the score look closer than the game indicated. The boys were successful winners on the day.
Matt and Dylan played strongly for Group 10 and were great ambassadors for the Oberon district. They finished the carnival learning what representative football is all about, that is, the skills that are learnt, the friendships that are made and the memories they have will be with them forever.
The boys would like to thank their families, the coaching staff and also to Barkers Butchery, the team BBQ on Saturday night was great. The business houses of Oberon are always putting their hand up in the support of our local sporting juniors, thanks again to Wayne and Jenny. Thanks also to Angela and the Group 10 Committee members for their support of Junior Rugby League.
It is not over for Group 10 with another hit out on Sunday the 1st of June at Wade Park, Orange.
The mighty Tigers are at home Saturday the 24th. Under 8’s kick off at 10.00am against St Pats. The Under 13’s game is against CYMS at 11.25am. See you there.
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