JASMINE Verrall towers over Malik Hunt and Levi Allan.
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However all three have made it to the selection heights after the two Werris Creek Public School boys were named in the North West Schools Sports Association (NWSSA) open boys’ rugby league side and Jasmine was selected to play in the NWSSA boys’ under 11 side.
Malik and Levi head off to Wyong at the end of June for their State Carnival while Jasmine travels a half hour up the road to play in the State Carnival in Tamworth in mid-June.
“It’s great for the school,” sports organiser Christine Roser-Whitney said yesterday.
“We’re only a small school, just under 100, so to have three players in the North West rugby league sides is a great effort for us. Malik was also in the 11s last year.”
Jasmine, she said , is also an outstanding runner.
“She was also in the North West team as a 200m runner.
“She’s fast.”
Jasmine loves playing rugby league as she “gets to take it out on the boys”.
“I was too rough,” Jasmine said of her playing other sports against girls.
And she likes being able “to be rough” against the boys.
She has been playing rugby league with her Werris Creek and Manilla combined sides since she was eight.
And Jasmine is fit – she trains with her mum, a fitness instructor, four afternoons a week.
Tall and strong, she looks every centimetre an athlete while Malik and Levi are much smaller, even though they are a year older and playing in the North West Open side.
Malik is a centre while Levi is a fullback and they also play for the combined Manilla-Werris Creek junior league sides of a Saturday. They have won a few premierships too.
Maybe they might be the start of a return to football prominence for a small town that produced the Wynn brothers – Graeme and Peter – and Matt Parsons too. All NRL stars as well as the likes of some outstanding locals such as Stewart and Richie Porter, Peter Rodden, Darby Sherlock, Greg and Eric Allan.
The Creek had some mighty sides in the early to mid ’90s when they dominated Group 4 first division under master coach Ron Dellar.