Scroll through Western Rams teams in the last half-decade and there's largely Dubbo, Bathurst and Red Bend alumni dominating those lists.
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That's slowly changing though, and Jackson Gersbach is leading the charge.
The 15-year-old is a Cabonne Roos product and has, aside from a year playing in Queensland in the under 10s, played all of his junior footy out of the Molong-Manildra area in the Lachlan District JRL, which takes in sides from Forbes, Parkes, Grenfell, Condobolin and Canowindra.
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As the first Roos junior to make a Western side this decade Gersbach is immensely proud but says his selection has been reward for a lot of hard work.
“It’s been a goal for ages," Gersbach said.
“I'm the first (Western player) for a while, a lot of the boys when they start playing rep footy move into Orange but I thought I’ll stay at my local club and just train hard.
“I broke my elbow playing country champs in the 15s a month or so before the trials so I missed out on the first trial but spoke to Western and got to do the second trial.
"I’ve trained fairly hard to get the elbow back up to scratch so I was pretty stoked to get picked in the team."
That effort came to fruition last weekend when Gersbach helped Western kick off its Johns Cup campaign with a gritty 14-12 victory over Penrith at Lithgow.
The Molong Central School student partnered Cowra's Bill Statham in the Rams front-row and laid the platform for Western's opening win in the under 16s country championship, the two-point victory a vast improvement on their trial loss to the Panthers a fortnight ago.
"We played Penrith in a trail and hadn’t really played together as a full team before that, it was a bit scrappy here and there, but we came together at the camp at Burrendong and we put it to Penrith on the weekend. Our defence was solid, we won the game there," the young prop said.
As one of the leaders of Western's pack, Gersbach says he's been impressed with fellow forwards Finnley Neilson and Matt Noakes so far this campaign.
I’ve trained fairly hard to get the elbow back up to scratch so I was pretty stoked to get picked in the team.
- Jackson Gersbach on his selection in the Rams under 16s.
Two of the Rams' others standouts were Dubbo juniors, dynamic fullback Braye Porter and hooker Fletcher Haycock brilliant first-up against the Panthers.
Western takes on Riverina at West Wyalong in the under 18s Daley Cup and under 16s Johns Cup on Saturday.
As Western did, Riverina's two junior outfits emerged victorious from round one of the country championship following wins over the Greater Southern Region Wests Tigers and Gersbach knows Saturday's second round match-ups will be tough.
“There's a few key players we need to cut down, but if we work as hard as we did last week we're a chance," he said.
"For me, I'll just try and cart the ball up well and be solid in defence.”
Western takes on Riverina in the Johns Cup from 12pm at West Wyalong's Ron Crowe Oval. The under-18 Daley Cup clash will kick-off at 1.20pm.
- JOHNS CUP: 1 Braye Porter (St John's Dubbo), 2 Mitchel Wilson (Wellington), 3 Josh Belfanti (Bathurst St Pat's), 4 Zac Williams (St John's Dubbo), 5 Brandon Hamilton (South Dubbo), 6 Kyle Mawhinney (Parkes Marist), 7 Cooper Egan (Lithgow), 8 Jackson Gersbach (Cabonne), 9 Fletcher Haycock (St John's Dubbo), 10 Bill Statham (Cowra Magpies), 11 Aston Warwick (South Dubbo), 12 Matthew Noakes (Red Bend), 13 Finnley Neilsen (Parkes Marist, c); Bench: 14 Riley Wake (St John's Dubbo), 15 Jesse Shorter (Red Bend), 16 John Mackay (Bathurst Panthers), 17 Sam Raumati (Red Bend), 18 Kaeden Dickson (Orange CYMS).
- DALEY CUP: 1 Ash Cosgrove (Bathurst St Pat's), 2 Noah Ryan (Dubbo CYMS), 3 MacKenzie Atkins (Bathurst Panthers), 4 Benjamin Lovett (Parkes), 5 Dylan Marmion (Blayney), 6 Ryan Manning (Orange Hawks), 7 Rylee Blackhall (Wellington), 8 Liam Henry (Blayney), 9 Campell Woolnough (Forbes), 10 Nicholas Bennett (Mudgee), 11 Jack Hartwig (Forbes), 12 Nicholas Barlow (Bathurst St Pat's), 13 Nathan Ward (Bathurst Panthers, c); Bench: 14 Tyler Colley (Bathurst St Pat's), 15 Thomas Stimpson (Dubbo CYMS), 16 Colby Peckham (Dubbo CYMS), 17 Lachlan Large (Bathurst Panthers), 18 Patrick Halsey (Bathurst St Pat's).
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Nick McGrath
Editor, Central Western Daily
Editor, Central Western Daily
