Class in key positions, and plenty of it.
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Central West coach Scott Hatch has his fingers crossed that will be the catalyst for his side’s charge toward NSW Country Rugby Union’s Rowlands Cup, country week’s colts prize, at Warren this weekend.
Hatch is the first to admit his outfit has battled for numbers throughout its preparation and is doing so again now after several of Central West’s dual-code players withdrew from the side this week, but says he’s sure there’s enough ability and experience among the group to overcome that setback.
Particularly through the side’s all-Dubbo Kangaroos eight, nine, 10 combination.
“Our nine and 10 combination is brilliant, young Pat Berryman at halfback has been playing first grade with Dubbo Kangaroos and will captain the side and Harry O’Leary at five-eighth is really solid,” Hatch said, the duo has the benefit of Roos clubmate and NSW Country incumbent Josh Jasprizza at No.8 as well.
“We’ll really look to those guys to lead from the front. We’ve got a pretty diverse range of players, some with plenty of representative experience and some without.
“It started off very slowly and we [are] struggling for numbers (a bit) but in saying that in the key positions across the side we’ve got some real class.
“In terms of our pack, they’re all workhorses. There’s no real superstars there but they’ll all do their jobs and they’ll do them well, a guy like Alex Saint in the back-row is someone I’m really looking forward to watching though. He’s got plenty of ability.”
They’ll be joined in the Central West squad by Orange City’s Nick Fisher, Hayden Leopold, Hayden Goodall, Tim Proberts and Jack Connors, while Orange Emus star-in-waiting Sam Greatbatch has also been named.
The Baby Bulls face Central Coast first-up in the four-team colts tournament while Newcastle-Hunter squares-up with Illawarra in round one.
A massive boost for his side’s confidence is the massive trial win it had over Central Coast earlier this year, Hatch says.
In the key positions across the side we’ve got some real class.
- Central West coach Scott Hatch
“It’s tough to gauge what the other zones have got, what they’re bringing to the table,” he admitted.
“But we had a really solid trial win against Central Coast, we won by 60 or 70 points (but) I don’t really know how much to take from that win, they travelled across with only 15 or 16 blokes.
“I guess we don’t know what else they could bring, but having seen a bit of what their strengths are will help us for sure, but I guess they’re in the same boat having seen some of what we can do as well.
“Obviously I’d imagine Newcastle-Hunter and Illawarra have probably been together for a while and will no doubt be really strong.
“We’ll go in and just look to play to our strengths really, focus on that first game and reassess after that. Hopefully we’ll be reassessing before a final.”
Central West kicks off its campaign at 11am on Saturday morning, before the play-offs from 9am on Sunday.
- CENTRAL WEST: Nick Fisher, Hayden Goodall, Hayden Leopold, Tim Proberts, Jack Connors (Orange City Lions), Lachlan Buckton, Rylee Lew (CSU Bathurst), George Fletcher, Alex Saint, Connor Pascoe (Mudgee Wombats), Sam Greatbatch (Orange Emus), Jake Sullivan, Charlie Sharwood, James Wilson (Bathurst Bulldogs), Josh Jasprizza, Pat Berryman ©, Harry O’Leary (Dubbo Kangaroos), Angus Hickey (SCU Marlins)
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
