The Cobar Roosters Under 18s will host Gulgong for the Castlereagh Youth League grand final on Saturday at Tom Knight Memorial Oval.
On paper, the Cobar side, who finished as the minor premiers this season, will be hard to beat. They have only recorded one loss this season and that was to Gulgong way back in Round 2.
Over the course of the 2024 season Cobar has beaten Gulgong four out of the five times they have met, including winning the major semi final, 28-12, two weeks ago.
The Roosters Under 18s have an impressive try scoring record in 2024 with a tally of 60 tries for the season.
Reece Josephson, who joined the team in the second half of the competition, was responsible for 13 tries and Kai Taylor had a tally of 10 tries this season.
The team has 13 players who have contributed to their big try tally and, on average, they’ve had four or more different players score tries each game.
Coach Paul Sullivan said while some weeks it was a struggle to round up enough players to field a full side, that won’t be the case on grand final day.
The team has regularly relied on three Under 16s players this season to help make up numbers including Jaxon Burke, Aiden Swan and Tim Eves (when it didn’t clash with their Dubbo & District Junior Rugby League commitments).
Coach Sullivan said Burke and Swan will be named in the run-on side while Eves will also make a contribution coming off the bench.
Sullivan is also spoilt for choice as to who will get the team’s kicking duties on Saturday with five players having proven themselves more than capable in that area including Josephson, Tadgh McMullen, Tommy Bryan, Oisin McMullen and Zane Jenner (from Coonabarabran, who is awaiting clearance).
One key player, Kai Taylor is however under an injury cloud, and Sullivan is hoping he’ll pass his fitness test on Saturday morning.
Sullivan rates his team’s chances of winning the premiership as very good.
“If they play to their strengths they’ll win.
“They don’t need luck or anything else if they all commit.
“They can win if everybody shares the workload. It’s going to be hot and they need to complete their sets and put their focus on the middle of the field.
“They need to hold on to the ball for the full set and force errors to open up opportunities.
“Gulgong has a big pack of forwards, they complete their sets of six, and they have a fast halfback we need to watch.”
As well as being excited, Sullivan said he’s also nervous about Saturday’s grand final.
“The kids are so lucky to have this opportunity to play a home grand final in front of a big home crowd, but that also brings a lot of pressure to do well with it.
“And playing footy in spring is completely different to playing footy in winter, it’s going to be great.”
Sullivan said while he’s played in eight grand finals in his playing career, none of those were in front of a home crowd.
“I’m so proud of these kids and how much some of them have developed and matured over the season. They just need to ‘be the pig’ and be committed.”
