Rugby League
Moss Vale Under-8s travelled to Bradbury Oval, Campbelltown last weekend to contest the Keith Holman Shield, named after the former great Magpie and Australian half and directed by the Western Suburbs District Juniors.
The competition was made up of four pools, with teams from the Illawarra, South Sydney, Canterbury, Group 6 and Western Suburbs Junior Leagues.
In the boy's first pool game we came up against the Macarthur Saints and it was not long before the Dragons asserted their superiority with a great team try scored by man of the match Ryan Munday.
Ryan had a great game, and apart from his try, he was involved in some rugged defence that stunned the opposition players and featured in many attacking raids launched by the Junior Dragons.
The half time score stood at 7-5 to the Dragons and the second half was a dour defensive struggle with both teams thwarting any attacking chances with some great last ditched tackles.
Matty Thompson put the game beyond doubt with a super try where he dodged and weaved his way through the tiring Saints defence as the Dragons ran out winners 12-5 .
Kharn Millward featured in some long probing runs and Matthew McLaughlin spending most of the match at first receiver directed the team around the park like a seasoned veteran.
In game two Moss Vale came up against Macquarie Fields and the Dragons were soon on top with a trademark Ryan Munday try and a five pointer to Nicholas Bizjak who had a super game, scoring twice and kicking a goal.
Nicholas' second try came up on a last tackle play with Ben Kelly weaving some magic before unloading the ball for Bizjak to score. Ryan Munday crossed once more and Matty Thompson scored his 2nd try of the day after some good lead up play from Brad Thatcher.
Final score: Moss Vale 29 (N Bizjak 2, R Munday, M Thompson tries N Bizjak, M Thompson Goals) def Macquarie Fields 10.
Game three saw Moss Vale come up against Hinchinbrook and this do or die match was touted as the match of the pool rounds with both teams undefeated to this point of the competition.
Moss Vale began the game well when Nicholas Bizjak pounced on a loose ball in the Hinchinbrook in-goal and with Isaiah Martin's conversion the Dragons had skipped to a handy 5-0 lead early in the game.
Moss Vale appeared to have the slightly better of play in the next period but could not convert this into points with two Nicholas Bizjak tries disallowed until a trademark Ben Kelly last tackle play saw him sneak over in the corner to give Moss Vale a ten point lead with five minutes remaining in the game.
Hayden Abedin put the game beyond doubt with a bustling run, outlasting the cover defence to dive over in the corner for 15-0 win
This win put Moss Vale into the semi-finals against Ingleburn RSL but a poor start had the Dragons on the back foot enabling Ingleburn to grab a soft early try and at half time Ingleburn held on to a 3-0 lead.
Ingleburn had the strongest defence of any team the boys had encountered, forcing many uncharacteristic errors from the young Dragons and despite many probing runs from Hayden Abedin, Kharn Millard and Ryan Munday, Moss Vale failed to chink the armour of the Ingleburn defence.
Ingleburn eventually ran out 15-0 winners dumping Moss Vale from the Keith Holman Shield.
Moss Vale entered this competition without Aiden Menzies who was laid up with a hip injury, his strong defence and probing runs were missed by the boys on the day and a speedy recovery is hoped for by team mates and coaching staff.
All the boys can feel proud of their efforts and sportsmanship through out this competition and the season.
Email a friend