Coach Ben Shea absorbs the Bulldogs defence.
The Junee Dieselsf ound enough in the tank to get over the hump against a tenacious Cootamundra Bulldogs side which has been surprising a few teams this season.
The game was met with much anticipation around the Group 9 competition with one of many Junee Diesels’ marquee signings, Ben Shea making his debut in the blue and gold.
The Bulldogs, looking to play spoiler, were excellent in defeat, making Junee earn the two points. Ultimately the Diesels’ superior experience in this level of competition provided the quality needed to edge the win from their K9 rivals 26-24.
Diesels’ President David Holt was very happy with what he saw.
“The game ebbed and flowed, we had the upper hand early before Coota got a bit of a lead, the players showed grit, knuckled down, scored a few times to get in front and held on.
“We finished strong defying their comeback and it got us across the line, two or three tries they took some last-ditch efforts to stop.
“We had a few opportunities going from one end to the other before the last pass wouldn’t stick; we just lacked the edge to capitalise.
“Plenty to work on, but also plenty of positives.
“Our two forwards (Jaydyn Hoeta and Tommy Carroll) both had terrific games. Coota have a great forward pack so they did an excellent job of holding their own. Sammy Sainsbury was fantastic.“Sam has a lot of good footy in front of him.
“Ben played an outstanding game, he’s a great and natural leader. He knows how to control things and was a huge influence on us.
“We’re optimistic with our upcoming games, we’re plenty confident.
“The depth is helping, we saw that with the reserve grade boys winning.
“They’re (Cootamundra) a competitive club, they’ve rebuilt well, they’ve got juniors coming through who are quality. The future is bright for them.
“Rugby league in Junee is looking very promising.
“Coach Ben Shea liked what he witnessed from his new team and was filled with gleam following his Diesels debut, “We only just got there. They (Cootamundra) made it a lot harder than it needed to be. They had a dig. It wasn’t a walk in the park, but we got there.”
“Everyone was probably putting a bit of pressure on, thinking we needed to win well (by a big margin), but at the end of the day, up until before the weekend, we’d only won two games all year.
“It’s just a matter of getting the two points and getting the confidence and then getting all the boys back on deck and building a bit of momentum there if we can do all that, the big wins will come with it.
“Coota had a few out on the weekend, but you can only play with what’s in front of you and every game is different. Sometimes when you’ve got a few of your key players out other guys try a bit harder.
“We shifted Dredin out to centres and he had his best game yet I believe. I think in my head where we were playing when he got over here. He’d been out for three months in France. His first game against Young where he played in the second row was his first game back in about three or four months. Now he’s probably at that more natural centre position for him and I thought he had a huge game. I thought he was probably if not our best, one of our best on the weekend. I have done the stats and I think he had 17 or 18 carries of the ball so he did a lot of work for us coming out of our end and defended well, got a try and I thought he had a huge game on the weekend for us.
“I was happy with how the bench contributed on the weekend, especially Quaider Kea and James Croyden. Both those boys had good games on the weekend.
“I think whatever team we come up with we are going to have an extremely strong bench regardless of what we come up with which will help us towards the back end of the season.
“Pete (Adam) come on and done a great job, Quaider and Croyden as I mentioned did well, and Muss Holt came on and he probably only played maybe ten or fifteen minutes at the back end, but he’d come on with energy and effort. I think that’s probably what the team lacked in the past, we probably don’t have the like-for-like swaps on the bench. So once our starters go off, the quality drops a little bit, and then it’s hard for the boys to stay in the game for the full 80 minutes. Now, as Willo (Damian Willis) said, like-for-like replacements mean we can roll the guys off for a rest, bring on the same kind of quality guys, and then that gets more quality out of our starters as well because they’re not playing as long minutes. It works out on all fronts.
“Dredin’s found a home in the centres and we will build a few more combinations there, then we’ve got Ratu on the other side, I think those guys once we can build our combinations and get them some supporting ball, they are both bigger bodies, good leg speed, they are going to be a real strike for us moving forward.
“I think our centres could be one of our stronger points now. Willo going down early didn’t help things and when he went down we didn’t have Dredin, so we probably struggled a little bit there over the last five or six weeks, but now that we’re kind of getting the cattle back we will push on.
“Ratu is a mammoth of a man, he runs well and hits hard as well. There are probably a few things we’re just working on with him, as I said, building combinations, because there’s been a lot of changes in the halves, a lot of changes in the back row and on the wing, so he probably hasn’t had the same edge that he’s defended with consistently and attacked with. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, we can get some consistency for him and Dredin. He’s (Ratu) probably one guy that I watched when I was in France and I saw him in on the videos and I thought he’s got a lot of raw talent and ability and a lot of size so I’m kind of excited to see what he can do once we get a bit of consistency around him.”
The Diesels will hope to keep the good times rolling next weekend when they travel to Gundagai to play the Tigers. The Tigers were given an almighty fright Sunday against the South City Bulls butc ame out ahead 22-14.
Elsewhere in Group 9, the Wagga Kangaroos got a slice of revenge against the Young Cherrypickers in their Grand Final rematch, Temora and Albury couldn’t find a winner after 80 minutes sharing the points 22-22, and Tumut was too strong for the winless Wagga Brothers.
Group 9 Draw Saturday, June 21 – Sunday June 22.
Gundagai Tigers vs Junee Diesels Saturday 2:35 pm at Anzac Park. Albury Thunder vs Wagga Kangaroos. Young Cherrypickers vs Tumut Blues. Wagga Brothers vs South City Bulls. Cootamundra Bulldogs vs Temora Dragons.
Group 9 Ladder.
1. Wagga Kangaroos, 16pts, 240.
2. Gundagai Tigers, 12pts, 80.
3. Temora Dragons, 11pts, 118.
4. Tumut Blues, 11pts, -4.
5. Young Cherrypickers, 8pts, 122.
6. Albury Thunder, 8pts, 52.
7. Junee Diesels, 6pts,-82.
8. South City Bulls,4pts, -70.
9. Cootamundra Bulldogs, 4pts, -76.
10. Wagga Brothers, 0pts, -380.
-Tully Potts
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