The Young Cherrypickers continued to prove their the team to beat in Group 9 again this year, cruising to a 40-6 victory over the Cootamundra Bulldogs on Sunday at Alfred Oval. The Bulldogs fought bravely and gave the Cherrypickers their closest game of the season but in the end the Group 9 stalwarts used their experience and knowhow to get a 40-6 win.
President Andrew Smith believes his team will be looming large come end of the season.
“The guys took the field knowing that; although Coota had been out of the comp for five years, we were going to be in for a tough physical game,” Smith said.
“Coota have been pretty surprising this season. They have signed well with their couple of good middles.
“The guys weathered the storm early, just very, very physical and just took over the middle and rolled from there. That was the dynamic of the first half.
“The second half was a little bit scrappier. Coota put up a really good fight, and it was good to get the win.
“Yes, the three middles for us were excellent. Big Isaac got player’s player. He was excellent. As soon as Giles or Jake Walker went off the field, he just kept that roll on.
“Jake Walker was excellent. He really made a mission to keep the physicality up, and Tom Demeio is just a class act. He just plays off the back of those big middles, and he had a terrific game.
“Tommy Demeio kicked a 40-20, and he had them all on a string. He kicked a 40-20, and then he stopped a couple right on the in-goal posts. When they had to attack it, he really put them out. His kicking game was really on point.”
The Cherrypickers travel to Gundagai this weekend to play the Tigers. The Tigers come into the game off the back of a 24-18 loss to the Tumut Blues. Smith anticipates a tough game.
“I think Gundagai are going to be our hardest game so far this year. It’s always tough playing them at their home ground, they always rise to the occasion. We are expecting another physical match, and it is my understanding they have a couple of their outside backs back this week, James Morgan and another guy, so they are going to be pretty potent in attack too,” he continued.
“You have only got to look at their game last week against Tumut with those two guys missing, they only just lost on the bell, so we’re certainly going to be in for a good match, a fairly equal match, and we’re going to have to rise to the task.
“Albury will play finals footy this year. They have got a good side. It’s always the concept that they have to travel all the way to Young or Young’s got to travel all the way there, there’s always that travel lag which might put a bit of effect on it, but they
“We are taking good form in to the game obviously, but we went down a bit to Coota’s level last week, the opposition this week is pretty classy, so we’ll definitely go in with confidence, but one thing is for sure there won’t be cockiness. We know who we’re playing and we have to be at our best to beat them.
“’ It’s probably half and half, there are a lot of new faces there. There’s still a lot of gelling to do yet, so to speak, with a lot of the guys because there’s probably five or six there that didn’t play a lot of the preseason games, so they’re starting afresh, but the one benefit we got is all the guys know each other. They do their own sessions, like the travellers I’m talking about, they do their own sessions together in Sydney, and then when they come down we’re ready to go and they’re gelling in nicely, but we have still got a hell of a lot of improvement in front of us, obviously.
“We are pretty happy with where we are at the moment. The more we play those top four teams, the better we are going to get.”
Elsewhere in Group 9, the Tumut Blues won their rivalry game in dramatic fashion against the Gundagai Tigers, the Temora Dragons beat the Junee Diesels by a large margin, Albury kept Wagga Brothers misery fresh thrashing them by 60 and the Wagga Kangaroos made it 3/3 with a win against South City.
Group 9 Ladder.
1. Young Cherrypickers, 6pts, 116.
2. Wagga Kangaroos, 6pts, 58.
3. Tumut Blues, 5pts, 12.
4. Temora Dragons, 4pts, 30.
5. Albury Thunder, 3pts, 20.
6. Gundagai Tigers, 2pts, 2.
7. Junee Diesels, 2pts, -4.
8. South City Bulls, 2pts, -22.
9. Cootamundra Bulldogs, 0pts, -70.
10 Wagga Brothers, 0pts, -142.
Group 9 Draw Saturday May 10 – Sunday May 11.
Gundagai Tigers vs Young Cherrypickers Sunday 2:35 pm at Anzac Park.
Cootamundra Bulldogs vs Albury Thunder.
Wagga Kangaroos vs Junee Diesels.
South City Bulls vs Tumut Blues.
Temora Dragons vs Wagga Brothers.
Tully Potts
