With a maiden New Era Cup grand final appearance 2019 was already memorable for Orange Barbarians, despite missing out on that crown, but they capped the year off perfectly last weekend by hoisting the Western Rams Community Cup.
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The final round of the competition, one designed to support the sport in smaller communites which welcomed back the likes of Carcoar and Burrangong, was played at Manildra's Jack Huxley Oval on Saturday.
Three rounds had been played prior with the fourth being the one that counted and Barbarians rolled through undefeated to claim the 11-a-side crown, first knocking off Carcaor (16-6), Burrangong (6-nil) and then the Gilgandra Panthers (18-4).
The biggest thing the boys said was it helped them find the fun in footy again.
- Barbarians player-coach Mitch Britt
"Carcoar had gone through the other rounds undefeated, we'd had some good battles with Burrangong and Gilgandra's competition only finished their competition last weekend so it was a tough day," Barbarians coach Mitch Britt said.
"It was based on a points system and we only had to win the last game to win the competition and we managed to do that, which was great."
He went on to say the title win took some of the sting out of his side's New Era Cup grand final loss to CSU Bathurst, which had left some of the group pretty dejected.
"It definitely helped after that loss, the biggest thing the boys said was it helped them find the fun in footy again, because it can be tough losing grand finals like that," Britt said.
"I'd back that up too because it was great fun. A lot of guys didn't back up after the grand final but we had a good group, we played to enjoy it, threw it around and just had some fun. We played some really good footy too.
"It was really good to be able to test ourselves against some Woodbridge Cup teams and Castlereagh League sides too, and we all enjoyed the competition, it's a good concept."
Ed Morrish won player-of-the-day on the weekend in helped his side to the crown.
"I don't think he deserved it, I told him that on the day too," Britt said jokingly.
Barbarians' league tag side performed well throughout the tournament, which was eventually won by the combined Cargo-Molong Bull Heelers.
Saturday's final round came after Barbarians' presentation night a fortnight earlier, in which Lionel Vanderwal and Kasey Byrne were crowned the club's best.
Vanderwal won the first grade player-of-the-year gong and Byrne the league tag equivalent, both had bumper seasons.
"Lionel was our best, definitely. He made his intentions clear at pre-season in terms of making the representative side and that sort of thing, he ticked a lot of boxes this year," Britt said.
"Coming from a Group 10 club Kasey made such a big difference for the league tag side, she helped with the coaching and that sort of thing, and her experience was huge for them."
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