A RECORD 13 Bathurst Goldminers juniors have been selected for higher honours in January after the recent announcement of squads for the Australian Country Cup and the Port Macquarie Country Develop-ment tournament.
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Under 14s, 16s and 18s teams traditionally play in Albury in January for the Country Cup, while Port Macquarie hosts the Pacific Coast Slam for under 15s and 17s players.
The latter event has been reformatted this year to be used as more of a camp than an out-and-out competition.
Either way, the ’Miners have been given a big role to play.
Lucy Dunn, Sara Matthews and Ben Matthews will all play in the under 14s division in Albury. Matilda Flood and Olivia Doble have been selected in the under 16s, as has Will Cranston-Lown.
Emily Matthews, Laycee Covington-Gorst and Neive Roebuck will play in the under 18s.
Ainsley Woods, Elysia Chua and Kobe Mansell are all going to be in action at Port Macquarie in the under 15s as well as Victor Chua in the under 17s.
“This is probably the most we’ve ever had involved. It is a great achievement,” Goldminers junior co-ordinator Paul Masters said.
“All the players went to a four-day camp in Newcastle and the squads were selected from there.
“They’ve all got a lot of representative experience already, and it is especially nice to see a lot of under 14s and 15s coming through. Matilda Flood is one in particular who has really opened a lot of eyes with just how talented she is.”
The format of the Country Cup is such that it pits country teams from basically all Australian states against one another as well as visitors from New Zealand.
There will be two NSW teams in the under 16s and 18s age group for both boys and girls. The under 14s have three sides in both.
“In the under 16s and 18s, especially, this is where they pick a lot of the NSW teams from,” Masters said.
“You can still make it even if you don’t play at Country Cup, but it is a bit of Russian roulette if you don’t turn out.”
“It is a huge tournament and one that has been running for 30, 35 years now.”
At the 2014 edition, South Australia claimed wins in all four of the boys’ and girls’ under 14s and under 16s competitions, while NSW sides took out the under 18s.
“Up at Port Macquarie they’ve traditionally had the Pacific Coast Slam but that has changed this year,” Masters added.
“Basically, the kids will get put into a team when they get there, have a game, and then go through video analysis and go through specific coaching afterwards.
“They will have coaching staff from the Boomers and Opals up there helping them out, so they will get a huge benefit out of it.”