Souths Juniors: Mascot Jets deny Redfern All Blacks to claim reserve grade premiership

The Mascot Jets pride themselves on a brotherhood within the local community and that came to the fore in the Souths Juniors reserve grade grand final. Here’s how they overcame the odds.

Mascot claimed its first Souths Juniors reserve grade title in six years to overcome recent history and down the Redfern All Blacks.

RAB has had the number of the Jets in recent times with two wins in the space of five weeks leading up to the contest.

One of those was in the first week of the finals where Mascot missed a golden opportunity to send the game to extra time.

But they showed composure to get themselves up for the biggest game of their season to prevail 16-12 at Redfern Oval.

Coach Chris Stevenson said they were glad to get one back and even more prouder to do it for a tight-knit Mascot community.

“They got us once in the season and then week one of the finals. It was the third time we played them in six weeks so I’m glad we got to give it a proper nudge,” Stevenson said.

“It’s only my second year and it’s such a big community club. There’s boys that live close and play close. Everyone trains together and the coaches are all speaking as much as we can.

“We had some U17s back up and play a few games. The U18s sadly folded but a few of their boys came to us as well.”

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A horror start saw two dropped balls from Mascot give RAB the first chance of the game, which they took as Christopher Carr somehow got an around-the-back offload away for Elijah McGrath to touch down.

The Jets eventually settled into the contest and a lovely cutout from Corben Downes to John Tuuholoaki got them on the board.

Their lead was stretched to 12-6 at the break after Uatau Filihia Hekava powered through the defence off a tap.

Mascot’s advantage grew to 10 with 20 minutes to play with Tyson Martin linking up with Downes, who broke the line and passed to Joseph Touma who kicked inside for Martin to cross.

Mascot Jets claimed the 2024 Souths Juniors reserve grade premiership. Picture: Contributed

Just minutes later RAB cut it back to four to set up a grandstand finish after Jeremy Gordon found a flying McGrath with an offload who raced 40m to score.

Mascot was able to hold them out however, completing the dream season.

“We had a shaky start. We lost our first game to Rovers and had all those washouts,” Stevenson said.

“Our first win helped us go on a bit of a run and we went three months without losing.

“Things started working and a happy team is a winning team.”

Donning an Akubra post game, Chase Sammons was named man of the match.

“He’s one of our pack leaders. He spent most of the season in the middle but we were lucky enough to have a few boys come back once A-grade were knocked out so we pushed him to an edge.

“Running at centres and halfbacks with a bit of space, it’s no surprise he did that on the weekend.

“Whenever we didn’t have John Paea it made a big difference. He’s one of the older boys who has been around for a while. He’s a smart head and someone who calms everyone down.”