Heroic and awesome display of home grown U15s talent
Wednesday August 12, 2009
A straight forward directive ‘your destiny is in your hands’ was the simple but highly effective motivational tool used to provoke the untapped passion of the Cobar U15 Roosters, in an action packed game filled with triumphs, disappointments, temperamental emotions, and an inspirational team cohesion never witnessed before at Apex Oval, Dubbo, last Saturday.
The highly charged Roosters opened the scoring, shortly after the initial kick off, with barnstorming second rower Brian Mudugem charging onto a pass first wide of the ruck to crash over with four defenders desperately trying to hold him out, to no avail.
With some smart tactical play and field positioning, Cobar rallied on the PCYC line.
Bursting onto a long pass, a rampaging Khaleb Whitehurst touched down out wide leaving multiple defenders in his wake.
In quick succession Wade Potter showed what a classy five-eighth he is, posting a great individual try, to put the Roosters in a commanding 14-0 lead.
Then all hell broke loose, with a number of key players suffering horrendous injuries: a broken collar bone, one player requiring possible knee reconstruction, another knocked out and left suffering concussion, yet another with a severely torn inner thigh muscle and one player with an energy sapping case of the flu— combine all this with just one reserve available ,and disaster was inevitable.
The Cobar side scrambled in defence time and time again to repel the slick PCYC backline incursions on the Cobar try line and the gallant Roosters limped to the half-time break 14-6 up.
The renowned ball playing and defensive guru Jim Delboux was subsequently ruled out for the season due to an injury.
That left an already depleted reserve bench empty, and the coach scrambling to find a replacement and (an amended game plan) for the remaining half.
In a scene reminiscent of the Alamo, Cobar’s walking wounded with the odds heavily stacked against them to survive, let alone win, took to the field.
There were no surprises when PCYC compiled a couple of quick tries to catch the Roosters on the scoreboard, and threatened to run away with the game with a blow-out score line.
Potter, taking matters into his own hands, stood up and took control of the game leading from the front in both defence and attack.
Potter proceeded to dominate the ruck and the outside three-quarter line, setting up Whitehurst for his second try and slipping block busting centre Macauley Dawson through the PCYC backline to score two tries sealing a magnificent and emphatic Cobar victory of
28-16.
The young Roosters set about protecting their 16 point lead with an avalanche of bone jarring, crash tackling style of defence, with Watson, Brad Harris, Delboux, and Sellick all leading the way.
Jordan Beasley had his best game of the season securing his left flank against the countless PCYC backline attacks.
The Dunlevy twins Cameron and Eathan, Slade Neale, Jordan Cranch, Clinton Everett and Brian Mudugem played an aggressive defensive pattern, negating every PCYC onslaught and raid into Cobar territory.
With frustration beginning to show, the agitated PCYC team burred up when their attacking plays faltered, to which the young Roosters replied with discipline and self restraint and walked away, preferring to let their football style do the talking.
The dedication and commitment to themselves and to their team mates was an outstanding, heroic, and awesome display of home grown talent, beating the best the best that Dubbo has to offer.
The Man of the Match and Defence awards both went to Brad Harris.
Watson and Potter also got a special mention for their defensive effort.
These young warriors finished the season minor premiers with a five point margin.
The Roosters meet PCYC again in two weeks to play for a grand final berth.—Ron Law
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