Our Junior teams are off to an amazing start for the year and are making everyone extremely proud. Here is a recap of how each team is going….

Under 8’s
Our Under 8’s are having a cracking season so far and are learning to tackle like champions. We have lots of familiar faces returning from last year and plenty of new faces including Spencer our Canadian import who is the fastest of all girls (and beats the boys too) in the U8 comp, Josh who has come to us with South African heritage, Gus who runs over the top of everyone and Eli who has never played in his life but is happy to line up the biggest kid in the opposition just to name a few. We are fortunate enough to have 1st grade coach Jode Roach at the helm and he is so happy with us I think we will be picked for 1st grade in no time!

Under 9’s
Our mighty U9s are so far undefeated this season. We have welcomed lots of new players/families to our team this season – some new to rugby and some with a few year experience. The boys are now learning the positions, cleaning out, tackling harder and finally starting to pass! The challenge this season will be developing structure in our play. Coach Andrew Beattie and Assistant Coach Anthony Fisher are utilising the tree-run often in training and never-ending bull-rush is always a winner. The boys are embracing being part of the greens community, sticking around for the older games and I think we have a very bright future for many years ahead. Just for the record our last game was a 135-20 win, not bad boys!

Under 10’s
The Under 10’s are enjoying the step up to playing on a full length field, 12 a side with allocated positions and roles, and no on field coaching.

Our experienced players are leading the way and the new players we have welcomed are learning impressively fast. We are currently undefeated, at the top of the table, with a for and against of +227.

The boys are also enjoying the new challenge of kicking conversions, with a long line up pushing and shoving for a chance when the try is scored under the posts, and everyone racing to be first back to the half way line when they are scored out wide.

Under 11’s – Green and White teams
With pretty much all of the 2018 team returning for another year of rugby and the addition of some new faces to the group we had just enough numbers for 2 teams which has been great as it has resulted in more game time for the kids this year and less stress for Prycey having to orchestrate his spreadsheets working the interchanges for 8 reserves!

Having 2 teams required more hands on deck for coaching with Paul Hughes & Andrew Pryce taking the reins for the Green Team and Brodie Hussain, Tristen Hough & Brad Drelincourt steering the ship for the White Team.

With 2 ‘Greens’ teams entered in this years competition they played against each other for the first time recently and you could feel the tension not amongst the players but more the coaches! In a well contested match played in great spirit the White team clawed their way back from being down by 2 tries at half time to win 24-21.

At time of printing our teams sit 2nd & 3rd on the ladder which is a great reward for all the work they have put in with Maitland once again the team to beat. 

Under 13’s
This year the U13’s have had a lot of familiar faces back for another season with the Greens and a couple of new players who have joined the team. We have also welcomed new Coaches from our Seniors P1 team Eli McCulloch and Lachlan Miller and a new trainer Raoul Fong. The extensive experience and knowledge that Eli and Lachie bring to the team will help the boys to further develop their skills, teamwork and attitude.  Evan Steverson has continued for another year as Team Manager which means that the quality of the jokes at training are not expected to improve any time soon.

The season ahead has its usual challenges against the perennial competition front runners Nelson Bay and Singleton as well as a resurgent Wanderers team who have recruited some extra players from other teams. We have lost two clubs from last year’s comp (Medowie and Pokolbin) which leaves us with 8 teams (yay no byes) and which means that every team plays each other twice (yay again). 

We may get knocked down a bit this year but we will get up again…every…single…time…

Under 14’s
The U14’s finished last season as joint premiers in the Grand Final – in 2019 we are hoping to go one better. The U14 competition is a close 5-team comp and the Greens are so far right up there in the mix. We have a relatively small squad and have welcomed some new players this season combining with our existing players, U14’s proudly have 5 rep players. Our fitness is unmatched in our grade and our never give up attitude has been a weapon in our games this year, especially in our Round 1 29-28 win against Lake Mac where our boys fought until the end and got the win. Coach Matt Jackson and Assistant Coach Bryan Wilson are drilling the boys with new skills and knowledge each week at training. Our back line is fast and they are scoring tries off set-plays while our forwards are working together well and always their for each other. Our U14’s definitely bleed green!

Under 16s
The U16’s have had a very good start to the year winning the first 4 out of 5 games, including the last 4 games in a row. We are now sitting in 2nd place, one point behind 2018 premiers Nelson Bay.

Given that we finished 5th last season, the boys have really stepped up this year, winning a couple of close games against, often bigger, opposition. Under the astute coaching of 1st Graders Jay Strachan and Billy Dunn, the boys have developed their playing structure and are combining really well as a team with all the boys contributing each week.

Congratulations to Tom Jackson, Josh Nadalin and Wil Cromarty who made the Newcastle representative team. Wil Cromarty played exceptionally well for Newcastle and has been selected to play for Country. Great effort boys.

Under 18s
As the colt’s competition didn’t go ahead this season the NHRU made the decision that the U18s competition would fill that void by playing before the senior grade teams each week. A great opportunity for the boys but this meant they would not play any games at Gibbs with the junior teams.

The 18’s are undefeated with 4 wins from 4 games along with a bye. Our squad has been hampered by injuries and player availability but to the teams credit they have displayed great spirit along with a will to win.

Our first game was against Nelson Bay at Strong Oval. We had 17 players for the match and headed up to Strong Oval not knowing what would unfold. The first half saw a see sawing match with the score line changing numerous times. Just before half time our half back injured his shoulder which was later confirmed as a broken collarbone therefore playing no further part in the match and out for the season. Nelson Bay had 8 reserves on the bench and we now only had 1 and we were up against it along with a breakaway now filling in as halfback. The second half produced some special moments from our team and when the full-time whistle blew we were in front on the scoreboard 39-36. A sensational team effort with the B&F points going to Ben Hodgson 3, Jack Piper 2 and Angus McBean 1.

Round 2 saw us head up to Maitland. The fact we were at Maitland was a godsend as the majority of the team was heading to Groove in the Moo. As we prepared for the game and the change room resembling some sort of outback cocktail bar trying to get the boys focused was an effort in itself. For the second week in a row we had a squad of 17 players and needed to get the teams mind on the job.Enter the team’s dictator Goggs conducting a very strict warm up having our team focused on only one thing that was bringing home the bacon. With not much going our way the boys dug deep and somehow we won 31-25. After the game the outback cocktail bar had drinks flowing with the coach thinking he was the main act at Groovin. B&F points going to Matt Baggs 3, Mitch Robinson 2 and Hudson Price 1.

Round 3 had us heading to Disneyland up against Lake Macquarie. Not knowing what Lake Mac had to offer the team trained as though they would win easily which reflected the way they played. In a scrappy affair we won 14-10 but the performance was not pretty. Yes the team got the points but they did not stick to the game plan and if it wasn’t for some individual brilliance we would have lost.B&F points Matt Baggs 3, Heath Goodwin 2 and Lachlan Frith 1.

A great start to the year but we are nowhere near the way we want to be playing. With a number of players returning from injury along with playing to our coach’s game plan the team can only get better.

The team as had some players be selected and play in representative teams.
Matt Baggs has just returned from a tour of South Africa representing CHS NSW side and finishing the tour undefeated.

Also Matt and Josh Fisher played for Hunter Wildfires open boys last weekend winning the country championships against Illawarra 21-7.