James Croydon runs straight and hard at the Tumut defence.
The final whistle shrieked, a sharp, decisive sound that echoed across the green expanse of Alfred Oval. For the Junee Diesels, it was the end of a long, bruising battle, a 34-18 loss to the formidableYoung Cherrypickers. But as the Cherrypickers celebrated their hard-fought victory, a different story was unfolding on the Junee side of the field. It was a tale not of defeat, but of defiant courage, of a team ravaged by injury and circumstance that refused to give in.
Junee’s head coach, Ben Shea, a man who had seen his fair share of adversity this season, met the result with a mixture of frustration and pride.
“We were down on troops again, and what we had, the boys still did a good job,” he said, his voice hoarse from a long afternoon of sideline shouting.
“We started well, and we put in the effort, but we just didn’t have the troops across the board to sustain it for the whole game with a team like Young.
“The Diesels’ bad luck began early, a cruel twist of fate that set the tone for the rest of the match. Just ten minutes in, their winger went down, a sickening snap and a broken ankle that forced an immediate reshuffle of the lineup.
“Just another reshuffle that we weren’t planning on,” Shea lamented, “on top of the guys that were already missing.”The team’s struggles ran deeper than just one game. The last four or five weeks had been a tough patch, a brutal war of attrition that saw their roster decimated by injuries.
Shea admitted it had been a grind, especially after the team was knocked out of finals contention. “It’s a bit harder for the boys to get the motivation for the back end of the season,” he said, “I think now we’ve got that last game in sight, we want to finish on a high.”
Despite the hardships, the Young match was an example of the kind of character the Diesels had shown all season. Ryan Crowder, a young player still in the under-18s, embodied this spirit. He was only supposed to play a few minutes off the bench, a brief cameo to get some experience with the senior squad. But when the winger went down, Crowder was thrust into the fray, playing a full 75minutes in the centres.
“There were a couple of big efforts like that,” Shea said, his voice full of admiration. “He played a full game of 18s and then bumped up for us.”
Another revelation this season had been Fiti Taalolo, a powerful player who had been a pleasant surprise for the club. “He’s very green, as in rugby league knowledge, even on the rules, he’s still learning on the go,” Shea explained, “but he just runs hard, tackles hard, and we are just trying to coach him in the right direction.”
Taalolo had been a “bit of a revelation” for the Diesels, a testament to what sheer effort could achieve. His season was unfortunately cut short with an injury in the game. “You get some blokes that are six foot four or five and got all the ability, but you just can’t get them to go into it,” Shea said, “and then someone like him, he’s going a hundred miles an hour. We’ve been doing little bits and pieces at training, and it’s his effort that is getting him noticed.”
But perhaps the greatest testament to the Diesels’ resilience was the performance of Mika Goudemand. The French import put on a heroic performance, playing the entire 80 minutes in the middle of the field against a constant rotation of fresh, powerful Young forwards.
“I thought Mika was massive for us,” Shea said. “He just does so much work through the middle, ball playing, tackling, carrying the ball and playing for 80 minutes.” Against a team with the size and depth of Young, playing the full game in the middle of the park was a “fair effort,” as Shea put it. Goudemand’s future in Australia remained uncertain, with interest from other clubs, but his impact on Junee this season was undeniable.
“He’s had a great year, so it’s disappointing he’s finished like that,” Shea added, referencing Goudemand’s injury.
The challenges were not limited to the field. Shea described the difficulty of managing a team with so many injuries, with last-minute changes and a lack of consistent training with a full squad.
“We didn’t get a chance to train with any consistency at all,” he said. The absence of key players like Chase Bell, Jaydyn Hoeta, and Ratu Saurara meant the team had to rely on a few players to carry the load, leading to a kind of “chasing our tails” scenario as they struggled to keep up with Young’s fresh bodies.
Despite the loss, Shea found a few positives in the performance. “We were able to start well with some intent,” he said, and the team’s defensive improvement in recent weeks was a point of pride. The coach even had a few friendly faces in the stands.
“I walked to the centre, and I haven’t been there for 20 years,” he said, “but there were a few familiar faces around, a few of the boys, the local lads, got the minibus over. I’m still trying to work out whether they were supporting me or heckling me, but they were there and making some noise, so it was a good day out.”
Junee Diesels President David Holt echoed his coach’s sentiments, acknowledging the challenges but focusing on the team’s unwavering spirit. “It was a good, tough game; they got us up the middle a bit,” Holt said. “They’ve got a couple of big boppers there that made a few yards and were a bit hard to contain.”
Holt admitted the team was “a little bit lacking on the troops this week,” a consequence of the trip to Young and the mounting injuries. “The boys stuck it to Young,” he added. “It was a good game. They played a cracking game, but unfortunately, we were just a little bit outclassed on the day.”
Holt’s perspective, however, was broader than just one game. He saw the season as a crucial stepping stone, a foundation for future success. “Finish this season off strong and just continue to build things into the next season,” he said.
The team had a few new additions this year, and it took a while for them to gel, to get to know each other’s playing styles. This season was all about “continually building and being patient.”
The Diesels’ journey was part of a larger club-wide narrative. Holt praised the under-18s, who had backed up to play with the senior team and “held their own.” He also highlighted the club’s women’s tackle team, who played a “very good style of football” and came away with a convincing victory despite missing several players to injury. While a loss in that game may have cost them the minor premiership to a team like Estella, Holt saw the bigger picture.
“A loss doesn’t hurt too much,” he said. “It gives you something to build on, gives you a bit more hunger.”
The league tag girls, meanwhile, had been hurt by a close, low-scoring loss to Tumut the week prior, a result that may have cost them a spot in the finals. But even with the ups and downs, Holt was optimistic about the club as a whole.
“It’s a matter of continually building and being patient and keeping on that build,” he said.”You can’t just expect to go from last place to win a premiership from one season to the next. It’s got to be progressive, but we’re in the middle of the pack with all of our teams this year. No one’s down at the bottom.”
As the Junee Diesels look forward to their final game of the season, a home match against the Albury Thunder at Laurie Daley Oval, the focus is on finishing strong. The team will be looking to avenge a close loss from earlier in the season, a 40-36 defeat that left a bitter taste. With key players like Shoey (Jack Schubert) and Ratu Saurara returning from injury, and players like Fol (Daniel Foley) having a full week of training, the team hopes to have a more consistent lineup.
“It will hopefully give us a chance to get a few guys back on deck and train with a similar team that’s going to play this week,” Shea said. The season has been a test of character, a trial by fire for a team determined to overcome adversity.
The final whistle against Young may have marked a loss on the scoreboard, but for the Junee Diesels, it was a victory of spirit, a testament to their unwavering grit and determination.
– Tully Potts
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