Having represented Group 11, Western and NSW Country multiple times, Rams head coach Darren Jackson knows a little bit about what it takes to succeed at rep level.
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And after naming a bumper 22-man squad ahead of the first round of the under 23s Country Championship on May 13, his confident this year’s Western Division side has what it takes – in abundance.
Jackson headed the four man selection panel – Kip Maranda (Lithgow), Will Harris (Parkes) and Shaun Hooper (Trangie) were the other members – that picked a Western side out of the divisional trials at Parkes on Saturday, Group 11’s 26-24 win over Group 10 landing them 11 spots in the Rams squad.
Group 10 earned nine and both Woodbridge and Castlereagh cups have a representative each.
Jackson was impressed with what he saw on Saturday, so naturally he’s excited to work with a group of players he believes will approach the championships with the right attitude.
“I’m big on body language, and the guys that looked excited, the ones that wanted to be there and put the effort in, those were the guys that were rewarded,” Jackson, based at Bourke, said.
“I’d rather coach a group of guys that worked hard and wanted to be there than some no-it-alls with poor attitudes.
“I think everyone gets more out of it that way.”
Dubbo CYMS’ quartet of Wade and Lincoln Kavanagh, Alex Bonham and Lee Price all caught the eye of selectors, representing the highest number of players from one club in the squad.
Both fullbacks Sam Dwyer (Parkes) and Keelan Bresac (Lithgow) are in the squad, Jackson confident the duo will work well in unison for his side.
Chad Porter (Parkes), Mitch Squires (St Pat’s) and Bonham are the halves named in the squad.
They’ll provide Jackson with two bigger frames, a feature noticeably absent from the Group 10 and Group 11 trial at Parkes.
“Yeah, there’s wasn’t a lot of bigger bodies. You’ll find a lot of these guys will mature more when they’re 27 or 28,” he said.
Jackson said he was super impressed with Canowindra’s Nathan Whatman, who came off the bench for Woodbridge Cup against Castlereagh-Barwon and “was the best player on the field”.
“He took it up all day and you could tell he was excited to be there,” Jackson said.
Western takes on Monaro – a team that’ll draw from the Canberra region – in round one at Cowra at the championships.
Jackson was predicting them to be sharp around the ruck.
“They always are, they come out of the Canberra Raiders system,” he added.
“I think we’ve got a good balance though. There’s a fairly even share of representatives from both Groups, and that’s due to the closeness of the game.”
The squad will be reduced to 17 players plus an 18th man for the Country Championship opener. The squad trains on Saturday at Manildra.
