From what he saw in Saturday’s trial against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles’ SG Ball unit, Western Rams under-18 coach Cameron Greenhalgh is certain his side will be a contender at the 2017 AAMI Regional Championship.
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The 30-strong Rams group – split into two sides for the trial – copped a 28-point hammering at Dubbo’s Caltex Park, but Greenhalgh said he was far more interested in seeing how the potential Rams applied themselves in the face of a far bigger, far more experienced outfit.
“I wasn’t too concerned about the result,” he explained.
“We had 30-odd players to look at in a short space of time so it was about far more than winning, and chopping and changing the whole way through the game makes it very hard to build any sort of cohesion anyway.
“I actually think considering how much bigger they were than us and how much time they’d have together, Manly has been training for months together whereas we’ve had a couple of ball-work sessions, that we did really well.
“I’ve got a pretty good idea of the group we’ll be selecting for the [Regional Championship], but even so we’ll have a number of guys on standby as well in case of injuries and that sort of thing.”
Prior to the trial, Greenhalgh said his main focus was attitude.
The potential Rams delivered.
“I got the attitude I wanted from the boys, definitely,” Greenhalgh said.
“They were keen and they were willing, which is very pleasing and seeing that from all the players makes it hard to pick a side. They all put their hands up.”
Orange’s Aiden Kelso, Cody Ramsey and Nathan Swain all impressed, as did Blayney’s Joey Hobby and Nick Tillburg.
Hobby and Tillburg, playing prop and halfback respectively, crossed for two of the Rams’ three tries.
“They all stood up and played well, which is great considering they’re mostly younger,” Greenhalgh said.
“Joey Hobby did a great job considering he’s younger and was playing in the front row and Nathan Swain, there’s not much to him but he throws his body around.”
The Rams stuck with the Sea Eagles for a large portion of the game, only trailing 8-4 at quarter-time but the Manly side ran away with it.
Max Lehmann scored a double for the visitors, as did Simi Afeaki while Dane Oolstondorp, Debraska Rikiriki, Zion Matthes-Matthews, Ben Gleeson, Logan Humphries and Tremaine Terzis crossed as well.
Luke Gale scored Western’s other try, while Forbes’ Charlie Staines was named the Rams’ player of the game after a huge showing.