TAMWORTH A’s coach Greg Doolan believes his side has got all bases covered and should figure in the U17 State Championship reckoning at Macarthur this weekend.
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They’ve got speed, strikepower, good corner flickers and a strong defensive unit, and Doolan said he’d be disappointed if they don’t make the final.
“We would have underachieved if we don’t make the final,” he said.
B’s coach Hayden Lewin similarly has high hopes.
“I’m really optimistic about our chances this year,” Lewin said.
They have been promoted to Division 2 this year after finishing second in Division 3 last year.
The A’s will contest Division 1 and Doolan rates them as probably one of the strongest of Tamworth’s representative sides.
“They won the 15s two years ago,” he said.
Two years before that in the U13s they were beaten in the final.
“We’ve got plenty of strikepower with Isaac Farmilo, Matt Johnston, Isaac Woodley and Mitch Salter, and a lot of strength in the midfield with Chris (Ninness), Antony (Doolan), James Psarakis and Andrew Finch,” he said.
“And Josh (Worpel) at the back just controls things. His outletting at the back is pretty good.”
Farmilo and Ninness are potentially game-breakers and the likes of Finch and Doolan can control a game.
They, along with Farmilo, both made the state U15s team last year.
Farmilo, Doolan and Worpel are also involved with the NSW Institute of Sport squad and have been down in Sydney for a couple of days training this week.
“The beauty is we should score goals. Knowing we can do that we can focus on defence,” Doolan said.
He said the thing that would let them down is their discipline.
“We can self-explode,” he said.
They have got a fairly tough pool.
“We’ve got Sydney who won the 15s last year,” Doolan said.
“And we’ve got Grafton who are strong for this age group.”
Central Coast and Far North Coast are the other two sides in their pool.
The B’s have also drawn Sydney. They’ve got Sydney (3).
“Sydney always field competitive sides,” Lewin said.
Lewin said they’ve got strength across the field.
“We’ve got some 15-year- olds like Harry Lewin and Jack Cruickshank who played Country (15s) this year,” he said.
“And some older guys like Dave Willis and Brandon Dyson.”
He’ll be looking to them to lead the way.
New England is in the opposite pool to them in Division 2.