Orange High School’s improvement at Tuesday’s PlayNRL Western Opens Girls’ Carnival, at Bathurst’s Carrington Park, was remarkable, the Hornets building throughout the tournament and ultimately claiming the inaugural title.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tuesday’s was the very first open girls’ full contact carnival and after being defeated 20-6 by Canobolas Rural Technology High School in the first game of the day, OHS reversed that result in a thrilling grand final.
The Hornets won 12-10 in the decider, with nothing but a missed conversion separating the two sides.
“Orange High actually scored in the corner, right on the buzzer, to beat James Sheahan (Catholic High School) in the semi-final too, so they did the hard work and deserved the win,” Dave Elvy, the NRL’s Western region game development officer, said.
“But at the end of the day, it was more about the players enjoying themselves and being introduced to full contact rugby league, and they did enjoy themselves.
“Most of the players have backgrounds in league tag or touch, both massive sports in this region and Country Rugby League.
“So we wanted to afford them the opportunity to play the full contact version of the game, considering how the pathways to the top levels are improving.
“Along with Orange High, Canobolas and James Sheahan we had Cowra High School and Molong Central School come along as well and considering it was the first time we’ve run a full contact day in the open division, it was pretty successful.”
Could the next Ruan Sims, Kezie Apps, Isabelle Kelly or even Vanessa Foliaki – an Orange product – be hiding in the Western region?
“There’s plenty of talent out this way, that’s for sure,” Elvy said.
“I think at first the contact shocked a lot of the players, but they got better and better every game and there was really good footy played by the end of the day.”
Orange High’s Eva Reith-Snare proved once again her talent isn’t restricted to the hockey and softball fields by claiming the player of the day award.
“I think Eva might have been a little bit daunted to start with, with the contact and that sort of thing,” Elvy said.
“But every game she ran harder, she tackled harder and just got better and better, so we awarded her player of the day, she did really well.
“There was a lot of really good players out there though, and we’re hoping all the schools and players continue to support days like these because they’re definitely something we want to build on and host plenty more of going ahead.”