CITY of Orange Touch Association (COTA) representative coordinator Tori Moore is confident the Thunder can emulate the feats of last year’s touring side and come away from the Hunter Hornets Regional Championships one of the region’s premier teams.
The COTA is sending one mixed side to this year’s championships to be held at Maitland over the weekend.
In the same competition in 2011, the Thunder finished runner-up to Wallsend Wolves forfeiting a 3-0 lead to eventually go down 6-5 in the decider.
The grand final loss was the only defeat the Orange side suffered throughout the 2011 championship and while disappointed not to come away with win, the Thunder outfit was rapt to finish second.
And this time around, they’re determined to perform equally well.
“We should do well again, we came second last year,” Moore said.
“There’s a bit more competition this year which will make it tougher but hopefully we can still make the final.”
As Moore said, it’s going to be tough.
The Hunter Hornets Regional Championships is one of the largest regional events on the NSW touch calender, attracting teams from across the far west, central west, central coast and Hunter regions in the race to the top.
“We’ve got a good pool, though,” Moore said.
“Central coast will be our biggest competition and they’re not in our pool. Hopefully we can play them in the final.
“The team was picked three weeks ago and we’ve had two training sessions since.
“It’s a throw-together team in a way but we’ve got a core group of players that have played together for a while now.
“It’ll be good if we can all click this weekend.”
Moore said two players to look out for were Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill and Mitch Green, with the later just back from a stint with the NSW Combined Independent Schools side at the National Youth Championships.
“They always pick it up when we go away and Mandy Moore has just come back from playing for state and she’s coaching as well which is a great help,” Moore said.
The Hunter Hornets Regional Championships are on this weekend in Maitland.
n ORANGE THUNDER: Darren Davies, Keegan Harding, Mitch Green, Kyle Connolly, Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill, Jayden Gibbs-O’Neill, Matt Georgio, Tori Moore, Mandy Moore, Lauren Williams, Tracee Honeyman, Nat Whiting, Tash Rudd.
