Gilgandra’s Jye Day and Coonamble Bear young-gun Mitch Cleary will get the chance of a life time next year when the pair headlines the NSW Rugby League’s (NSWRL) under 16s Koori side, a team that will play before the 2019 Charity Shield.
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The Koori versus Queensland Murri game acted as the curtain-raiser for last year’s South Sydney Rabbitohs and St George Illawarra Dragons pre-season clash at Mudgee, with nearly 10,000 people packing Glen Willow for the match.
The Murri won last year’s game 36-26 over the hosts.
The 2019 NSW squad was picked out of the November’s Talented Aboriginal Athlete Pathway Camp (TAAP) held at the Sydney Academy of Sport in Narrabeen, and coach Ron Gibbs said the game gives plenty of talented Indigenous kids a chance to shine on the big stage.
“This is a great opportunity for the kids involved and I’m really looking forward to coaching them,” Gibbs said.
“There’s a lot of talent in this team and I’m confident that we’ll give a good account of ourselves against the Queensland under-16 Murri team.”
“This match will be exciting for all the of the kids involved and might help unearth the next wave of talent coming through,” NSWRL Indigenous and community programs manager Kristian Heffernan added.
“It also exposes them to a high-performance environment they might not normally be involved in and is further evidence of NSWRL’s commitment to the Indigenous community.”
The NSW Koori and Queensland Murri match will be played at Mudgee on Saturday, March 2.
- NSW Under 16s Koori (in alphabetical order): Liam Browne (Cessnock), Timothy Bull (Green Hill), Mitchell Cleary (Coonamble), Jaleal Cooper (Raworth), Jye Day (Gilgandra), Malakhi Donovan (Toormina), Jarmaine Elemes (Garden Suburb), Louis Grossemy (Matraville), Jeffrey Harvey (Narrabri), Isaiah Kennedy (Wollongong), Kyle King (Ropes Crossing), Jarrah McLoud (Nowra), Tyler Moodie (Cameron Park), Fletcher Myers (Waratah), Emanuel Sutton (Woolgoolga), Izayah Tuigamala (Eveleigh), Brendon Tumeth (Enfield), Ronald Whitton (Plumpton), Michael Whitton (Gorokan), Jordan Wilson (Spence); Coach: Ron Gibbs.