A busy weekend of basketball awaits the region's junior sides, with the Dubbo Rams representatives in the Western Youth League set to receive a full two day's of action in the upcoming round.
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The under 18s boys side are now the de-facto oldest side in active competition for the club, after the reluctant decision was made not to field senior teams this year for a number of reasons related to the COVID pandemic and travel restrictions.
Coach Michael Bonney walked away impressed with the effort shown by his side in their first hit-out of the year.
"We had a couple of boys drop out with other sporting commitments, that rocked their confidence a little bit, they're all young players as well, but once we got our plan in place and started playing it was good," Bonney said.
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The side started their season off on the front-foot in last weekend's opening round, taking out wins over the Narranderra Knights and Leeton Eagles, with their only loss coming by way of the Griffith Demons.
"I think we could have come away 3 - 0, but with only seven players for the weekend, fatigue set in. But they played really, really well," Bonney said.
The squad were led on court by Jack Strawns, who acquitted himself well in his first outing with the Dubbo Rams jersey on in 2021.
"Jack Strawns for the whole weekend was just unbelievable, a very good leader and really stepped up in his position across the whole round," Bonney said.
"Finlay Hennessy was another standout; he really shot the lights out, he gave us a lot of confidence in that third game against Leeton."
"He hit the three ball early and often in that first quarter and then carried it on with his defence and really set the tone for us."
The Rams touched up the Leeton Eagles 73 - 65, the Narrandera Knights 81 - 71 and fell 79 - 46 to the Griffith Eagles.
Those matches were contested in Leeton, but the upcoming fixtures will be contested a little closer to home, with a shorter trip to the Bathurst Sports Stadium awaiting the Rams.
"We're really looking forward to that, a lot of them have played at the Bathurst Stadium growing up and it's been a real frequent trip for them, so it'll be a lot more familiar," Bonney said.