RUGBY LEAGUE
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THREE Bathurst teams will head to Dubbo tomorrow for the finals of the David Peachey Shield and Russell Richardson Cup, including two from Holy Family Kelso.
Defending Peachey Shield champions Assumption will also be in action, while Blayney is the fourth representative from the Bathurst region after finishing runner-up in the local leg of the Richardson Cup.
Holy Family principal Kevin Arrow is confident that both his school’s sides will give a strong account of themselves after winning their respective regional rounds.
“We actually have a really good record of thriving in these competitions, this is the 14th year in a row where we’ve have at least one side qualify to go to Dubbo,” he explained.
“Assumption have had a very strong football side for a couple of years, but that has swung a bit towards us this year and we defeated them in the Peachey final in Bathurst.
“We played St Joey’s from Blayney in the Richardson final and were strong enough to win there too.
“It is tough on finals day though because you have to win your pool, which basically means going undefeated to make it through to the semi-finals.”
Each side will play three preliminary matches before the knock-out rounds commence later in the afternoon.
Having a look at some of the players and personnel involved alongside Arrow and his staff over the years, it isn’t hard to see why they have thrived when it comes to rugby league.
“[St Pat’s premiership player] Brent Dennis is the coach of the Year 5-6 team in the Peachey Shield and has done a fantastic job,” Arrow said.
“He’s a terrific role model for the boys and has a lovely manner when working with them.
“We’ve got more boys than girls enrolled here at the moment, so it is important that we have these kinds of extra-curricular activities outside of class and they all love being involved.
“We’ve won over in Dubbo a couple of times and been on to the Legends of League tournament in Sydney, which is a great opportunity for the boys if they can get that far.
“Going back a while now, the likes of Peter and Mick Siejka put a lot of effort into gala days and those sorts of things and they had some pretty good sons at the school when it came to league.
“Players like Harry Siejka, Stirling Siejka and Doug Hewitt were all there at the same time at one stage.”
Though Arrow is proud of his teams for making it this far and wants to see them do well again tomorrow, he said it is crucial to maintain an emphasis on participation.
“We had 60 kids play in six teams at the Bathurst round, and they all had a ball,” he said.
“When we were picking the sides, we picked 10 strong players for both competitions which were the main teams, and the rest in both the Peachey and Richardson competitions were nearly all first-time rugby league players.
“We want to involve them as much as possible."