St Patricks JRLC had 50 reasons to celebrate why they are able to produce many Aussie & NRL stars
ST PATRICK’S Junior Rugby League Club has plenty of reasons to celebrate their golden jubilee, having produced several stars including three who represented Australia and more than 15 going on to play in the elite NRL competition.
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ST PATRICK’S Junior Rugby League Club has plenty of reasons to celebrate their golden jubilee, having produced several stars including three who represented Australia and more than 15 going on to play in the elite NRL competition.
Mark ‘Spud” Carroll, Andrew Fifita and Matt Moylan are among the former players who have donned Australian jerseys.
They, along with the other NRL players, were honoured by St Pats at their recent anniversary celebrations.
The NRL representatives are: Tony Ashworth, Tas Batieri, Steve Martin, Robert Jackson, Joe Vitanza, Mark Carroll, Gavin Catanach, Joseph Paulo, Matthew Wright, Jamie Buhrer, Andrew Fifita, Jake Foster, Blake Austin, Tim Simona, Matt Moylan, John Asiata, David Fifita, Matthew Lodge.
The club’s glory years were from 1981-83 when they won the first division A Grade premiership for three straight years.
St Pats president Ray DeBattista said the club suffered a body blow when they lost their base at Patrician Brothers College, Blacktown, at the end of the 2005 season.
“The 50 year celebration is an anniversary of when the club first joined the Penrith Junior League (1967-2017) with the actual commemoration date being the start of the season on March 1,” DeBattisa said.
“However, the club was actually established some 10 years prior to this and played in the Parramatta Junior League until 1967.
“The club was founded by the Patrician Brothers and members of the Burgess family, who are still active within the club today.”
The teams played their home games at Patrician Brothers College Blacktown, until 2005, when they were forced to find alternative fields.
St Pats have been based at Glenwood since then but will move to a new home ground at The Ponds next year.
“The club suffered from the move to Glenwood, where they went from having more than 30 teams to 16-17 teams in the first season at Glenwood,” DeBattista said.
“The numbers stayed solid for a number of seasons, but has dwindled over the years, due to the surrounding area being primarily a soccer hub.
“In 2017, our team numbers are reduced to nine, with five junior teams and four seniors, about 250 registered players.
“Hopefully our new stadium will start to attract new numbers from next season.”
Details: 0407 924 279
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