Central Coast Rugby League: Fresh faces lift under-19s comp

Some returning faces, one completely new club and an ‘Arnott’s all sorts’ side will highlight the new-look Rugby League Central Coast under-19s competition.

A string of returning faces and one completely new club to the division will highlight a new-look Rugby League Central Coast under-19s competition, which is set to kick off next weekend after an opening round washout.

Hunter club Woodberry is the surprise packet for 2024, with the Warriors joining the competition as a late inclusion. They will line up alongside Erina, Kincumber, Ourimbah-Berkeley Vale, Terrigal and Umina to form a six-team competition, with Wyong and The Entrance having joined the Newcastle under-19s competition.

“We’re only a small club, so for us to make a move like that is a big thing, particularly this year being our 50th year in existence,” said Woodberry president John Leao. “We’ve got a proud history and we’re looking forward with excitement to the journey.”

The development came about in the last couple of weeks after the Newcastle and Hunter Rugby League under-19s competition fell apart.

“We were asked by NSW Rugby League if we wanted to move up into the (NHRL) open age D-grade competition but we opted against that,” said Leao. “I got on the front foot and said, ‘Why don’t we try Rugby League Central Coast?’ It had never been done before but I thought I’d put the feelers out and we got a great response back from the board.”

After first reaching out to the NSWRL about the prospect of joining, Leao said the deal was sorted in “literally a matter of days”.

“The RLCC board came back within 24-48 hours and said that they’d be happy to have us and we said yes, so we were all in.”

Woodberry, located about 20km northwest of Newcastle in the City of Maitland, was originally scheduled to play its first game this Sunday against Terrigal at Dora Creek as part of the Swampies’ home match day – with the team expected to play at neutral venues for much of the season.

“Given the distance between us and the Central Coast, we’ve all agreed to play our home games at a central location, which means that both teams will have to travel but it will be somewhere closer to the halfway point for either side,” said Leao.

“We’ll also reach out to individual clubs and see if they actually would be interested to come up and play at our home ground, but that’ll be something we’ll look at on a week-to-week basis.”

In fact, Woodberry’s inclusion in the competition is in some way a partial realisation of previous plans to merge the Central Coast and NHRL under-19s competitions.

“We’re kind of honouring that agreement in one way,” said Leao. “As a club we’re sort of following through with that announcement.”

After a round one washout, Woodberry is scheduled to kick off its season on Sunday May 12 against Erina.

“We’re full of excitement. We’re obviously moving into a competition that’s unknown to us but we’re really happy that we’ve kept our main playing group together and we can’t wait,” said Leao. “We’re raring to go. We’re excited but also grateful for the invitation to join the competition and through our involvement we hope we repay the trust that has been shown in us.”

Woodberry isn’t the only fresh face entering this year’s competition, with a combined Ourimbah-Berkeley Vale team another unique inclusion in the under-19s.

“It’s Arnott’s all sorts, to tell the truth. We’ve got a bit of Erina, we’ve got a bit of Budgewoi – we’ve recruited from everywhere,” said Ourimbah president Warrick Faint.

A combined Ourimbah-Berkeley Vale team (in black and white) will compete in the under-19s competition. Photo: supplied

Indeed, while the side will play in Magpies colours under a combined Ourimbah-Berkeley Vale banner and split their home games between Bill Sohier Park and Ted Doyle Oval, Faint said the club looked far and wide for players after starting off with a core group of six or seven Ourimbah juniors.

“Blue Haven didn’t have a senior club at the time, so a few of their 19s came to us, we got a few from Erina who wanted to play, some from Budgewoi and Berkeley Vale as well.”

The return of an under-19s side for the first time since 2021 is the first step in Ourimbah’s quest to return to a full complement of teams in the division.

“We’re looking to go into first grade next year, so we need to develop our juniors coming through,” said Faint. “You’ve got to get the footings done before you put the house on.”

The Magpies are making good progress and remarkably sit third in the club championship standings behind Erina and The Entrance.

Wyong and The Entrance have joined the Newcastle under-19 competition this season. Picture: Sue Graham

Both the open grade and reserves teams are unbeaten after three games, with the return of the likes of local juniors Josh Moffitt and Max Mitchell, to name a few, strengthening the quality of the squad.

“If we get all our juniors back we’ll have a good first grade side,” said Faint.

Indeed, one of the clubs that well and truly knows the importance of the youth grade to the overall health of the club is Terrigal, which returns to the under-19s competition this season after failing to field a team in 2023.

“It makes or breaks a club, really,” said president Dave Lyons. “We’re kind of feeling the effects of not having a 19s last year in regards to second grade this year. We don’t have those under-19s flowing into grade, so we had to forfeit the first week as we tried to cobble a team together for second grade.”

Traditionally one of the stronger clubs in the juniors, Terrigal was left without an under-19s team last season after a string of the Sharks’ young guns had signed up to play in Sydney-based NRL pathway systems.

“We lost six or seven who moved on to play elsewhere and from what I understand there were some kids who weren’t comfortable playing in that higher group, going from 17s straight into 19s, without those stars being there,” said Lyons.

Brooklyn Rosemeyer made his first grade debut in round one. Picture: Sue Graham

“They got a bit of cold feet and that was the end of that. Having said that, we still had five or six 19s playing grade last year, but it just wasn’t enough to fill a team.”

And while the club hopes this season’s crop of under-19s will filter through the senior grades in years to come, they might not have to wait that long, with current 19s players Brooklyn Rosemeyer, Sam Gillespie and Jarrod Dann all debuting in first grade in the opening round of the season.

“Brooklyn and some of those other boys coming through are keen to play grade and are ready to play grade. And if you’re good enough you’re old enough,” said Lyons.

“It’s very important for every club to have a solid 19s base, as well as 17s, 16s, 15s. I don’t think you can put a big enough emphasis on your junior teams coming through – it’s massive.”

After the opening round was washed out, the under-19s competition is scheduled to kick-off on Sunday May 12.