The Cobar Roosters Under 18s created history when they claimed victory in the 2017 Barwon Darling Cup grand final on Sunday at Brewarrina.
Not only did the Cobar team pull off a thrilling come from behind 24-22 win against Collarenebri in their first year playing in the Barwon Darling Cup competition, they also broke a 27 year premiership drought for the club.
The last time a Roosters Under 18s team had won a grand final was in 1990 when they were playing in the Group 11 competition.
Man of the Match Henry Brookman scored the winning try for the Bantam Roosters in the dying minutes of Sunday’s grand final to snatch a well deserved win.
Under 18s coach Ben Simon said despite some decisions that went against them early in the match, his team stuck it out and they played the game they trained for.
Coach Simon said at the beginning of the season he had a team of individual stars but hard work and lots of training had seen them gel into a fantastic team unit.
In addition to Brookman scoring, Cobar’s other try scorers were Johnny Best, Luke Grey, Jay Ellison and Marty Turton with Kody Martin kicking two goals.
Simon said co-captains Turton and Wyatt Proudlove both had outstanding games along with Ellison and Patrick Hallcroft.
“Marty’s been consistent all year, he ran well, tackled well and made good decisions from dummy half.
“Wyatt and Patrick Hallcroft had lots of possession. They did a great job of running the ball up,” Simon said.
He said the game was disappointingly marred by the Collarenebri team and supporters’ bad sportsmanship after the game. (They mouthed off at referees and officials and walked off before the Cobar team had received their winner’s medals.)
“That’s why bush footy is dying,” he said.
