AFL Central West: Junior Eagles will benefit from representative carnival experience

Across the three days at Nowra, the under 13s, 15s, 17s and youth girls AFL Central West Eagles talents took on rival representative sides from the Sapphire Coast, Illawarra and Shoalhaven.

With their preparation much more limited than that of their rivals and many players wearing an Eagles jumper for the first time, AFL Central West competition and development coordinator Casey White knew they faced a stiff challenge.

All four squads suffered heavy defeats in round one against Illawarra - the under 17s posting the sole major for the Eagles across Friday evening - but in the games which followed on Saturday and Sunday things got better.

The youth girls outfit, coached by Jayarna Kay, responded well after that tough 66-0 opening round loss and managed to notch up a pair of wins, beating Shoalhaven 21-6 on Saturday then 57-7 on Sunday.

They came close to beating Sapphire Coast as well, a late goal all that denied them in a 26-24 result.

That squad featured six Bathurst Giants and six Bathurst Bushrangers.

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"The kids, they learned a lot this weekend. We were on the receiving end of a fair shellacking on Friday night, I think across the four grades it worked out that we lost 420-6 against Illawarra," White said.

"Friday night is always our toughest one, our kids, whilst a lot of them play together or play in the same town like Bathurst, they still don't know enough about their team-mates, their strengths, their weaknesses, what foot do they kick with.

"But then we saw as the carnival progressed our teams started to build and become more competitive.

"Our under 17s team only went down by about 10 points in their game against Shoalhaven, so it was really exciting to see them be competitive."

Just as the Eagles impressed with their improvement as the carnival unfolded, White said the way the players represented the region was something he was delighted to see.

He believes that not only the youth girls representatives, but the Dale Hunter coached under 13s, Carman Armour's under 15s and the under 17s players mentored by Matt Armstrong and Brad Broes will show the benefits of playing at a higher level when returning to club duties.

"It's just a really good carnival, it's tough footy, it's a different brand of footy and a large number of them, particularly the younger grades, had never played a night game as well," White said.

"Our players have been respectful to their coaches, their opponents and umpires and their on field conduct was outstanding. They supported their other teams when the draws worked out they were able to.

"It's really good for our league to be involved in this sort of carnival and the experience and learning they'll take home to their clubs far outweigh any negative."

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