A GRAND final against Bloomfield - that how St Pat's under 16s coach Mat Dunn thinks the Group 10 Junior Rugby League season would have finished had COVID-19 not forced an early end.
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Dunn's Saints had qualified for the finals in third position and while going down to Bloomfield in the first week of semis, the coach had every faith his Saints would have met them again.
They did not get the chance to do so as the season was abandoned before the second week of finals, but Dunn is adamant in his belief it would have been his Saints facing the Tigers in the decider.
"The boys were disappointed after losing that semi, but they knew they were capable of beating Bloomfield because we'd beaten them only a couple of weeks earlier," Dunn said.
"After the game we spoke about it and we knew what we had to do to beat that side. Even though Panthers finished first, Bloomfield have been the standout side for the last few years and the ones we considered to be the benchmark in the competition.
"They learned a lot from that the boys, for a lot of them it was only their first or second crack at semi-finals and most of them have only been playing a few years. The experience would've done them good.
"I thought we saw the grand final that day, with no disrespect to Panthers, I thought we would be seeing Bloomfield in the grand final. To me they were the side to beat and I felt we were good enough to go through and meet them in that grand final."
As Dunn pointed to, Pat's had beaten Bloomfield 10-0 a fortnight before that qualifying semi-final.
It was part of a strong run towards the business end of the season, the Saints also drawing 8-all with minor premiers Bathurst Panthers.
"We started off the season really well, but then we had a run of injuries where we had about six kids out and we had to borrow a lot of under 15s. There were weeks when we played away we only had 13 and 14 kids because the under 15s didn't align with our draw," Dunn said.
"So we had a period there or about four or five games where we struggled purely in the back end of games because of injuries. But once we got those boys back, we had a good back-end of the season.
"The thing with the draw, it probably wasn't actually reflective of the season, we played Bloomfield three times and we only played Lithgow once, we only played Mudgee once and they finished below us.
"So we didn't all play the same teams the same amount of times."
While Dunn praised the effort of all his players - both those who started and those who came off the bench - he singled out some for special praise.
"Our forward pack really laid the platform for us this year and I just think they've been outstanding. Justin Hodgson our big front rower has only been playing a couple of years, Riley O'Loughlin and Blake Lasham and Henry Oates, they've been outstanding," he said.
"Off the back of that pack it allowed Oliver Hollow, who is our halfback, to play some eyes up footy. He's exploited a lot of defences this year when the forwards created the gaps for him and our fullback Alex Davis and Jacob Kelleher and Dylan Branda in the centres.
"Mitch Kirby on the wing, he's in his first season of rugby league and has just been solid every week, doesn't miss a beat and you just love having wingers like that who bring the ball back at speed and put the body on the line."
While they did not get the chance to play for a premiership, Dunn said the Saints will "be more hungry for next year" when they step up to under 18s.
"To have it pulled from underneath you, everyone is so disappointed," he said.
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