A product of Dubbo rugby league could help Illawarra bring Group 11 undone in today’s Centenary Trophy clash in Wollongong.
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Blake Dunn, 21 this year, played his junior football with Eastridge and in 2005 was hooker for CYMS in their Group 11 under-18s premiership win against Narromine. That same season he played for Country and was the Group 11 Under-18 Player of the Year.
He then played park football in the Canterbury district before heading to the Illawarra and linked with Thirroul.
After the club has put together eight successive wins to lead the local competition, Dunn finds himself with representative honours for the first time in seniors.
Playing against Group 11 today is something he’s really looking forward to.
“When they told me of my selection I was really pleased, then after last weekend to find out we would be playing Group 11, well that was something different again,” Dunn said this week.
“I’ve been pretty happy with my own form and the Thirroul side is unbeaten, so it’s been a good season.
“I don’t know many of the names in the Group 11 side but I’m sure the side will be competitive.
“We’ve also got a good side and I would like to think we will win.”
Dunn, a former hooker, will play in the second-row today.
His Thirroul club president and Illawarra selector Aiden Beath (formerly from Goolagong) is confident Dunn will get the job done.
“We’ve been really pleased with Blake. Since he’s been down here he’s built up to 99kg and after moving from hooker to second-row has been going really well and was deserved of a place in the Illawarra rep team,” Beath said.
“His sensational form has been in both defence and his ability to hit the line, I know our club coach Phil Oswald is really happy to have him and the same can be said for the Illawarra coach Brett Jones.”
Rugby is very much a part of the Dunn family. Blake’s father Gerard was a long-term Group 11 player and his younger brother Brock is hooker for the Canberra Raiders in the Toyota Cup under-20s competition.
Meanwhile, work commitments have seen a number of changes to the Group 11 side for today with Nathan Smith and Peter Boon out and Cole Jermyn (Cobar) and Danny Read (Parkes) coming into the squad that arrived and trained in Wollongong yesterday under coaches Terry Fahey and Rod Frail.
This is Illawarra’s first game in the Centenary Trophy, and Group 11’s third - all away from home and the fact that the home side is a ‘divisional side’ is not going to make Group 11’s task any easier.
Group 11: 1 Cole Jermyn (Cobar), 2 Tom Yeo (Dubbo CYMS), 3 Semi Tora (Parkes), 4 Shane Martin (Cobar), 5 Steve Madden (CYMS), 6 Mick Clarke (Narromine), 7 Tom Clyburn (Parkes), 8 Steve Lyons (Cobar), 9 Darren Jackson (Macquarie), 10 Nick Wilson (CYMS), 11 David Robinson (Forbes), 12 Ash Conn (Macquarie), 13 Peter Ford (Cobar). Interchange: 14 Danny Read (Parkes), 15 Luke Jenkins (CYMS), 16 Adam Betts (Cobar), 17 Zac Rennick (Macquarie).