Considering it was their first NSW Country Championship outing in four years, the Illawarriors' women's representative team can feel proud of their runner-up showing at Tamworth's Scully Park during the June long-weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Their coach Dani Hill was definitely proud of her team's showing.
"Since it was the first country champs for the women in four years I knew it wouldn't be easy. But to only have two tries scored against us the whole weekend is a huge achievement," Hill said.
"We came runner-up in our pool.
"It wasn't the result we were hoping for but watching these women fight their hardest on the field is all I could ask for as a coach.
"Every player left everything out on the field.
"We had a strong team which included a balance of experienced players and some aged only 16-years-old.
"We are hoping to have a few names in the team list to represent the Corellas at nationals and I would be very surprised if there wasn't.
"Our focus is to now only hope to bring a bigger and stronger team away next year to bring home the Cup."
Unfortunately the Illawarriors Colts team had a tougher time of things in Tamworth.
Their co-coach Ben Ridgway though said his young chargers learned a lot from the challenging weekend.
"We came up against some really experienced big physical sides that obviously come from strong cults competitions. So they play regularly together and it showed," he said.
"We didn't win any of our games as a result but I thought the highlight for us was the effort we produced in defence in all our games.
"The scorelines we lost by doesn't adequately reflect how well we played , especially in defence, which was outstanding at times.
"The issue was we lacked execution in most of our games.
"I do however think we will learn from this and come back bigger and better next year.
"We had a few young guys in there. There was a 17-year-old prop who played unreal, he did an awesome job, he didn't lose a scrum all weekend.
"There's a bunch of young guys that will back up again next year.
"So it was definitely a good experience for them and I'd say a lot of those guys haven't played a lot of high-level footy like that before, so it was good to give them a sniff and get them excited for the next year."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
