DUBBO'S under-16 men's side wrapped up a stunning Western Youth League (WYL) campaign at the weekend and now turns its attention to contesting the southern hemisphere's largest youth tournament.
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The squad, coached by Shane Fee, finished runners-up to Orange, despite going into the finals weekend at Lady Cutler Ovals with a single win under their belts.
Fee said the side showed massive improvement throughout the three-round competition.
"In the first round on May 1st they drew with Wellington 2-all and the same day they lost 5-0 against Orange," he said.
"Then we went for the second round which was the 15th of May and they beat Wellington 4-0 and lost 5-2 against Orange and then just last week we played Wellington and we beat them 9-1, and we played Orange in our last game and we beat them 2-0.
"It's a new team so... some of the guys had played together and some hadn't. So it was just gelling and getting to know each other's game. The improvement's there and we're going to try and do a bit more."
The side is now looking to the Kanga Cup, which will see more than 4500 kids from under-8 all the way up to under-18 flock to the nation's capital.
Fee said the tournament draws teams from across the world, including countries like the United States, England, Denmark, Italy and South Korea.
"It's the first time [at the Kanga Cup] except for three that have been before, they went in 2012. They've had a little bit of a taste of it but for those other ones it's the next level for them," Fee said.
"Every player in my team is a standout. I have different level players, every team does, but every player stands out in their own way. Otherwise they wouldn't be in a rep side.
"Everything [needs improvement]. At the end of the day, if they play like [they did last weekend] over there they'll be highly competitive.
"We'll now be training until then trying to fix little problems but after last weekend we know that we're going to be pretty competitive, otherwise we wouldn't be going."
The Dubbo and District Football Association (DDFA) had five teams competing in last weekend's finals: under-12 boys, under-12 girls, under-13 boys, under 14 boys and under-16 boys.
The under-13 side was the most successful, wrapping up a dominant campaign by topping their division ahead of the Lachlan Lions.
The under-12 sides also performed well, with both the boys and girls teams finishing second in their divisions behind Bathurst District Football.
The under-14 boys improve dramatically throughout the competition, coming back from an 8-nil defeat to Orange in round one to score a 3-nil defeat at the weekend.
They also managed a 0-0 draw with the eventual winners Bathurst to finish third in the division.