GROUP 11 under-13s coach Bernard Wilson will be asking his forwards to lay the platform for his side in the Country Cluster Championships at Wagga Wagga this weekend.
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Both 13s and 14s from Group 11 will be represented with Wilson looking after the 13s and Dave Bayley from Forbes in charge of the under-14s who will play against sides from Groups 8, 10 and 20.
Dubbo junior league players dominate the under-13s taking up 13 of the 17 places with Parkes having four representatives. South Dubbo Raiders with five players and St John’s (4) are best represented.
“It’s been a good selection process that saw us having trials in Dubbo between two sides and over at Parkes and Forbes they did the same. Then we brought the best players sides together for the final selection game,” Wilson said.
“I’m confident our forwards will be up to the task. It’s a very good pack and I’m sure they will go well.
“Charlie Bible, the second-rower from Narromine is a very good kid, South Dubbo hooker Kane McDermott is playing well at dummy half and Kiden Mohr, another second-rower from South Dubbo, is also having a good season.
“We also have well-balanced halves with Jai Merritt (South Dubbo) going well alongside his five-eighth from Forbes Warren Baxter.”
In the under-14s there are no Dubbo players with the Nyngan Tigers having the biggest number with seven players.
Neil Millgate, the Dubbo association president, said the season had been a good one so far for the Group 11 and Western Rams junior sides.
“When you consider we won the under-16s and 18s championships this season and currently have six under-16s and three others in the 18s at Toowoomba to play for Country against Queensland on Saturday, the
game is in a good position,” Millgate said.
“I’ll also be looking closely at the results from Wagga and we are fortunate to have two good coaches in Bernard Wilson and Dave Bailey preparing the 13s and 14s. Both were good footballers in their days and are good students of the game and are passing that experience on to the boys.
“While there are no Dubbo boys in the under-14s side, there were a couple in the origin squad from PCYC but they pulled out for different reasons. The other aspect of the 14s is that we in Dubbo are struggling for numbers in that age division here and a number of South Dubbo boys play each week with Nyngan.”
