Tamworth under 13s will be giving away age and size to their rivals at this weekend’s boys State Indoor Championships in Orange.
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Both sides are very young.
A’s coach Garry Littlejohns only has three top age players (13) in his side.
“The rest are 11 and 12,” he said.
His B’s counterpart Greg Scott doesn’t have any 13s in his side but does have a couple of 10-year-olds.
“We’re pretty much the York Cup team,” he said.
“We’re using it as a way to get more time together.”
“They are a pretty talented bunch.”
They’ll play in Division 3 while the A’s will contest Division 1. Runners-up last year, they have had a big turnover of players with only Tom Littlejohns remaining from that side, and will face a big challenge taking on the likes of Illawarra South Coast, Central Coast, North West Sydney and Parkes.
A couple of late withdrawals haven’t helped them leaving them with only one sub for the weekend.
“We’re still hoping we can compete,” Littlejohns said.
“We’re capable of doing that. But we are going to be giving away a lot of size and speed.”
They will also have to combat playing against teams that regularly play indoor together.
The case will be the same for the B’s.
It has been a pretty steep six week learning curve for them but Scott has been impressed with the way they have come along.
“I’m pretty happy with the kids and what they’ve been doing,” he said after their final training run on Tuesday night.
“We just played the Division 1 team and went pretty well.”
They have drawn Goulburn first up on Friday and have also got Northern Sydney & Beaches and Port Macquarie Hastings in their pool.
Tamworth is also sending two teams to the girls championships, which get underway on Saturday and run through to Monday.
The A’s are in Division 1 and ranked top of their pool and the B’s in Division 2.