Wellington Cowboys under-18s side is one game away from a Group 11 rugby league grand final.
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The team will play Nyngan Tigers at Dubbo on Sunday for the right to contest the season decider.
Cowboys finished as minor premiers, giving them the first week of the finals off.
They’ll return to the field rested and full strength.
“It will be the first game we will have a full squad all year,” coach Aidan Ryan said.
“We’re one game away from a grand final, it’s pretty good.”
The team used the time to have a bonding session and train hard.
“We’re looking pretty sharp,” Ryan said.
He said they would continue the season’s game plan on Sunday.
“Play good smart football and hopefully come away with the win,” he said.
Co-captains Will Lousick and Kotoni Staggs have been leading the Cowboys around the park this year and earned praise from their coach.
“They’ve done a tremendous jobs, it’s awesome,” Ryan said.
Ryan has coached for the past three seasons, concentrating on building the side up.
“I think in the next couple of years we’ll be pretty dominant in first grade, that’s what we’re hoping anyway,” he said.
Nyngan is coming off a 17-16 win over Forbes Magpies.
In the elimination semi-final a near perfect 20 minutes to kick-start the second half catapulted Macquarie to a 24-20 win over Dubbo rivals CYMS.
A heated contest at Forbes’ Spooner Oval – both sides traded pleasantries in the tunnel during the half-time break – the Raiders showed why they’ll be a handful throughout the rest of the competition with a come-from-behind win.
Down 10-4 at the break, Hale Gordon’s side produced four second-half tries in quick succession, including two to impressive young backrower Luke Gale, to skip to a 24-10 lead.
CYMS came home strongly with two tries in three minutes to edge to just four points adrift, but the young Fishies left their run too late.
Gordon was confident if his Raiders were capable of switching on for the whole 60 minutes, then a premiership was within reach.
“Definitely. You want to maintain momentum and your psychological advantage in the key moments of the games,” he said.
“We’ll work on that focus we lost for the last six or seven minutes.”
Faye Wheeler
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
