Collegians U14s can't lose in the major semi

COACH proud of how close his two Collegians teams are in games in WDJRL.

The Collegians White and Blue under 14 sides (front, from left) Trey Williams, Samuel Wainwright, Darcy Goodman, Thomas Durrington, Jack Rossiter, Cooper Morton, Thomas Blake, Jesse Scanlan, William Gross, Isaiah Hinch, (middle) Liam Ryan, Carge Martin-Brown, Hugh Inmon, Jacob Fuhrman-Luck, Matthew Watt, Dion Williamson, Cody Johnson, Brendan Hughes, Campbell Ridley, Lachlan Collins, Samuel Neucom, Jack Talbot, (back) Greg Hoffman (Trainer), Cody Collins, Caleb Farrell, Matthew Lane, Thomas Doherty, Connor Reimers, Andrew Willett, Harrison Boal, Martin Bell, Ryan Fischer, Jesse Bohm, Robert Bell (Coach). Aaron Hinch, James Smith, Clarence Lee, Jamaine Smith, Kynan Henry and Alex Stewart (Trainer) are also in team.. Picture: Naturalite Studio

TWO Collegians teams will do battle in the major semi final in the under-14 grade in the Warwick and District Junior Rugby League at Eastern Suburbs Oval on Saturday.

For the first time, two clubs in the U14 grade have fielded two teams, Collegians and Stanthorpe.

The Collegians Blue team won the minor premiership and Collegians White was second on the table.

"We have had 37 players for the season in U14 and we abided by the Warwick and District Junior Rugby League rule that multiple teams must be of equal strength,” coach Bob Bell said.

"There was only two points between the teams in the last round game of the season, with Blue winning.

"The two teams bring the best out of each other when they meet in a fixture game or finals,”

While Bell hasn't had an official captain throughout the season, he has appointed captains for both teams for the finals - fullback Tom Doherty for White and halfback Hugh Inmon for Blue.

"We train the two teams together and they often oppose each other in training sessions.”

Bell has coached the U14s in the past when they had two teams.

"There has never been much between the two teams at any time, we think we get it right,” he said.

Bell sat down with his managers, Alex Stewart and Greg Hoffman, to come up with the two teams this season.

"We pride ourselves on having one squad but two teams,” he said.

Stewart and Hoffman are Cowboys regulars and past Collegians junior players.

Bell will coach both teams on Saturday in the major semi, with one manager allocated to each team.

"We give each manager a chance to be with either team, which seems to work,” he said.

"This model tends to work best with officials not being permanently allocated to either team.

For the first time, Stanthorpe has fielded two teams in the U14s, Stanthorpe Blue and Stanthorpe Green.

See photos of all 16 semi final teams in Saturday's print edition of the Daily News.