THEY began their year on a winning note and that is exactly how the under 16 St Pat's side wants to end it.
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This Saturday at Cowra’s Sid Kallas Oval, the under 16 Saints will line up in their respective Group 10 Junior Rugby League grand final against Orange CYMS.
If they can overcome their Orange rivals, it would ice an already impressive year for the Saints.
“At the start of the year we won the pre-season knock-out against a few of the Group 10 and Group 11 sides that went in it, we had four guys out with rep duties and we still won it,” coach Chris O’Neill said of his Saints.
“We had two Sydney trials and won both of those and during the actual season we only lost the one game to Bloomfield and that was just before the semis.
“But that was a bit of a wake up call to make the boys hungry again.”
It was Bloomfield who St Pat’s defeated 34-12 in the major semi-final to earn a shot at the premiership title.
CYMS did it tougher, going down 24-0 to Bloomfield in the opening week of finals before beating Cowra 30-6 in the minor semi-final then Bloomfield 14-10 in the preliminary final.
“We did really well in the major semi, the boys came out fired up and played really well, it was probably the best they’ve played all season to be honest,” O’Neill said.
“Last year we won the major semi and got straight into the grand final, and we won that grand final, so fingers crossed we can have another victory.
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“It’s going to be another big, tough game. We have to focus on it and hopefully we’ll be right.
“CYMS had a big turnaround in form to get on top of Bloomfield.”
O’Neill has worked hard on not only having a strong starting 13, but a bench that can maintain the standard when called upon.
He hopes that will give them the edge against a CYMS side they have developed a good rivalry with.
“In the last comp game we only beat them by a point, but that’s all we need to beat them by,” he said.
“They always seem to lift when they are playing against us, there’s a bit of rivalry there, there’s a few rep players in both teams who know each other and push each other.”
From the side that won last year’s grand final, only two new faces have joined the Saints this season. That means the blue and whites have a host of experience to draw on come Saturday afternoon.
“They lost the under 14s grand final, I took over coaching them as under 15s and they won that grand final, and before they were 14s, they won quite a few together. They won most of their junior comps and most of the squad have been together the whole time,” O’Neill said.
The under 16s grand final will kick off at 3.30pm.
ST PAT’S: 1 Ash Cosgrove, 2 Noah Coooney, 3 Josh Belfanti, 4 Zach Foskett, 5 Nick Kelly, 6 Tyler Colley, 7 Jayden Fisher, 8 Tom Rodham, 9 Jack O’Neill, 10 Josh Hanrahan, 11 Cooper Akroyd, 12 Blake Martin, 13 Myles Martin, 14 Max Martinez, 15 Michael Clarke, 16 Jayden Jenkins, 17 Evan Booth, 18 Charlie Ayoub, 20 Ike Bellamy.
