The Junee Diesels appear to be making all the right moves as they prepare for a return to the Group 9 first-grade competition in 2023.
The club, who has re-appointed Damion Fraser as their first-grade coach, have also signed local products Daniel Foley and Pat Guthrie.
Foley returns to the club after a stint with the Wagga Kangaroos, and he will help Fraser as assistant coach.
Guthrie, who left the club in 2020 before playing with the Southcity Bulls in 2021 and Wagga Kangaroos in 2022, returns from a significant hand injury, and Junee president David Holt is confident the talented forward will play an important role both on and off the field.
“His hand is not too bad and it’s on the mend. It was misdiagnosed to start with, but we are confident he will be right,” Holt said.
“He is a big signing, and club wise, he adds a lot; he is straight on board with recruitment and helping out with coaching.”
It has been an exciting little period for Junee, who won both the Weissel Cup and Burmeister Shield premierships in 2022.
Following this success, and with stalwarts such as Guthrie and Foley locked in for next season, the club has signed some new talent in the form of Zach Singh and Jeffery Robbert, while Hayden Diggins returns to the fold.
Additionally, the club has retained the services of Burmeister Shield premiership winning players Sireli Vulaono, Paula Naidike, Ratu Saurara, Tom Carroll, and Jese Wainibuli.
Junee were originally slated to play in the first-grade competition this year but following a delay in marquee talent arriving in Australia, which led to back-to-back forfeits to start the season, the Group 9 board suspended the Diesels from the competition.
Following their suspension, and a good season of results in lower grades, Holt was happy to announce that Junee were tracking nicely ahead of next year’s Group 9 competition.
“We are in a hell of a lot better position than we were 12 months ago,” Holt said.
“At that point, we only had a senior coach and no players signed, and 12 months down the track, we are in the position we should be in. We are kicking goals and heading in the right direction.
“There are roughly 24 players contracted there right now that are of genuine first-grade standard, and the talk of the town is that a lot of players want to join in 2023, whether that is in first-grade or reserve-grade, which is really good.”
The Group 9 Annual General Meeting will be held at Wagga RSL on Sunday and Holt is confident that next year’s committee and fellow Group 9 clubs will back their return to the first-grade competition.
“I am confident and NSWRL are confident that we are heading in the right direction,” Holt said.
“We have gone from having under 18s, league tag, and reserve-grade, to having under 16s, 18s, league tag, reserve grade, and now we have a good amount of quality players to make a first-grade team next year, and I think we will field all five grades.”
It remains to be seen what the Group 9 committee will make of Junee’s potential return to the first-grade competition, but Andrew Hinchcliffe has indicated that all is fine ahead of Sunday’s meeting.
Jeff Hanson
