Southcitys’ Luke McBeath, Michael McCormack MP, and Cherrypickers’ Jayke Hogan at the season launch in Wagga Wagga over the weekend.
Young will play Southcity in the first Ray White Challenge Cup this Sunday as the 2026 Group Nine Rugby League competition kicked off in Wagga on Sunday.
The Cherrypickers were the final team left in the draw after a lucky spin determined they would hold the trophy. The Bulls will have a 4½ points start for the fixture at Alfred Oval as a result of this.
Andrew Smith, President of the Young Cherrypickers, said the Club is in great shape for great success this year.
“We’ve had all the players say that they had a great pre-season. They’ve all bought in. They’re super fit. Coaches are running everything well, and we’ve won back the Challenge Cup as well, so we’ll be inaugural owners for the start of the season with the four-and-a-half-point deficit, but that’s the point system, so we will have to be better than South City.
“The golf day (on Friday) was terrific. There were about 120 players there across the board. It was looking a bit bleak there with the rain at the start of the day, but it turned out to be a really nice day, and everything ran smoothly. Everyone had a great time.
“It is always a good day, but also a lot of work goes into it with all the helpers and everything, and the Club is always appreciative of that. Overall, it was a good day.
“Tons of work goes into it, absolutely tons. The clubs don’t run without those volunteers.
“As I said, the clubs don’t run without the volunteers, and we’ve got all the little sub-committees, delegations to help with those specific items for functions and the golf days, stuff like that. The coaches are doing their parts, and that’s certainly why we’ve always had a good club is because of the people behind it running it.
“The community support has been terrific. With the Goulburn trial, we had a bumper crowd up there, especially with the juniors having a new Cup on too, that helped a bit, but when you sign a lot of new quality players, you have all the supporters get curious and interested in the side again. We’re expecting a bumper crowd this weekend as well for the first home game.”
– Jack Murray
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