NORTH West finished last when the NSW PSSA 11 Years Rugby League Carnival was held in Tamworth last year and co-coaches Mitch Hardy and Peter Brown are confident they can rise a few places.
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The statewide carnival is being hosted by the North West School Sports Association at Tamworth Minor League Park again this week as Polding hosted last year’s state rugby league carnival at the same venue last year.
And Hardy is confident the NW side can improve on last year’s effort despite a 24-nil loss to Sydney North in their first game of the 2016 carnival yesterday.
“It was unfortunate,” Hardy said.
“It always takes us a game or two to warm up but I was really happy with the way we played (against Sydney North).”
The side went even better against South Coast, losing 18-10 to a Greg Stone-coached side that profited from two good tries from Corrimal’s Matthew Walker.
Walker is the grandson of former blockbusting West Tamworth Robins (now Lions) first grade winger Garry Walker.
The former Robin, who also smacked many a six for West Leagues (now West Tamworth Cricket Club), was back with his son, Ben, to cheer on young Matty.
Stone was delighted with the opening day’s results.
“One from two, 50-50, got to be happy with that,” Stonesaid. “We lost to Sydney East (18-nil) but beat North West (18-10).
“It was a good day.
“There are no easy games either.”
His side plays Sydney North and Sydney South West this morning and then Riverina in the afternoon.
North West lost their third game yesterday 26-0 to Sydney South West.
North West Schools Sports Association sports organiser Richard Rowlings said 11 regional sides are contesting the three-day carnival, five in one pool and six in the other.
Sydney West won last year’s carnival, beating Sydney East in the final at Tamworth Minor League Park.
Last year’s carnival was hosted by Polding while North West SSA is hosting this year’s carnival.
Hardy said his side has matches against Riverina and Sydney East today and hopes for a better result.
He and Brown took the side “to the coast” for a weekend coaching camp two weeks ago.
“We went over and worked on a few plays and some team bonding,” he said.
“We’ve still got a few things to work on.”
Kaiden Lahrs (Oxley Vale), Reave McLean (Westdale) and Kaleb Hope (Glen Innes) were impressive young players yesterday.
