Peter Mulholland Cup quarterfinals live stream: Westfields Sports High take on All Saints, Maitland

The Westfields juggernaut is in yet another NRL Schoolboys quarterfinal. Here we look inside the school’s prolific rugby league production line. Catch them LIVE at 11.15am on Wednesday.

When it comes to dominant rugby league schools, Westfields Sports High has been right at the top in recent times.

Winners of the NRL Schoolboy Cup in 2016 and runners-up in 2017 and 2019, Westfields has produced 11 Australian Schoolboy representatives over the past 10 years to sit narrowly behind Patrician Brothers’ Blacktown and Endeavour Sports High as the most prolific in recent times.

With this mind, it’s perhaps no surprise to see that the school has once again made it through to the quarter-finals of the Peter Mulholland Cup, where it will take on All Saints, Maitland.

You can see the teams battle it out LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on Kommunity TV at 11.15am from Lidcombe Oval on Wednesday. Catch four games back-to-back from 10am. See the full schedule below.

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But in a competitive sporting environment, what is it that makes Westfields such a prodigious rugby league production line?

“There’s a very strong culture across the school, and that’s sport in general – not just a rugby league culture but a strong sporting culture,” said Troy Weeden, the school’s rugby league convener.

“I think we’re seeing it at the moment with the Matildas, we’ve got four of the girls who came through there. The coaching staff I’ve got here are second to none, and it’s always good to see the boys, and now the girls, progressing from year seven through to year 12.

“And that’s where I think a lot of our strength comes from, too: a lot of those kids who’ve played Schoolboys Cup have been at the school since year seven, they’re not sent in late, so they understand the school and what it means to play for the school.”

Kohan Lewis, Dion Williams, William Craig, Roy Quiroz-Mapusua and Luke Biva Laulilii.

Another area in which the school stands out is the nature of their rugby league program, with Westfields breaking from the norm of previous decades, which placed a heavy emphasis team-focused structural coaching.

“To be honest, we’ve sort of gone away from that,” said Weeden.

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“My goal for these boys here is that they go on and play NRL. They’re not going to play NRL with all the structure and plays in place here; it’s about them actually developing as players, so their individual skill has to be up to standard.

“So we’ve probably sacrificed a bit in terms of the plays and the structure in place of individual development. I don’t know whether it’s cost us games, because I think at the end of the day when we do play, we looked structured, but I think that comes later in the piece for these boys.

“I think our boys come out of the school very highly skilled and can transfer that into any club, which is important.”

Indeed, instead of spending hours working on set plays and structures to work to in certain parts of the field, Weeden says his charges have more time with the ball in hand.

“Our training never involves positional-specific stuff. We train footballers, so whenever we do any sort of training session, all the boys do everything: so for the dummy halves’ drill, everyone gets in there, they all learn to kick, they all learn to run good lines.”

Westfields have placed a huge focus individual skills. Picture: Christian Gilles

It seems Westfields might be onto something. Since the introduction of the six-again rule in 2020, creative players who can play off the cuff and create something out of seemingly nothing are once again in high demand.

“I think if you have a look at some of the boys who’ve come out of here in the past few years, even the clubs have been a bit confused about where they should play,” said Weeden.

“Jake Averillo, he played five positions for the Dogs last year; Josh Schuster, I think Manly’s still trying to work out whether he’s a half, a backrower, a lock.

“So with the game changing, I think that bodes well for our kids, because they can go from a position one week into another, they can go from one club to another – certain coaches have different ideas on where they want to play players. So I think they’re definitely more versatile.”

And while the team is no doubt in the competition to win it, Weeden says his success won’t ultimately be determined by whether Westfields lifts the Peter Mulholland Cup or not.

“Someone asked me last year: ‘Are you disappointed with losing the semi-final to (Patrician Brothers) Fairfield?’ And my response was: ‘No, we had six kids go on and do an NRL pre-season and they had one.’ That’s a win for me in terms of what we do here. That, for me, is success.”

He added: “I’ve sat in recruitment meetings where NRL coaches have said to (Harold) Matts and (SG) Ball coaches: ‘I don’t care if you win a comp, you just need to give me three or four players who might be right for the NRL in a couple of years’ time.’ And they’re spot on: that’s the way you’ve got to approach it.”

The goal of Westfields’ coaching staff is to prepare the players for the NRL.

Nevertheless, strong performances on the park certainly don’t hurt, and Westfields have been impressive this season, winning all three group games to top the strong seeded pool.

“I think we played well in patches throughout,” said Weeden.

“Probably our last game against Hills (Sports High) was our most consistent. I thought our first half was probably the best half of footy that I’ve been involved in since I’ve been here at the school, so we were happy there.”

Throughout the current campaign Westfields have been led by their two Australian Schoolboy representatives – half Lachlan Gavin and outside back Luke Laulilii – both of whom are contracted to the Wests Tigers.

“Lachie’s been good the last couple of years, he started playing this two years ago when he was in year 10, so that maturity that he’s got from playing in it for so long you can see this year,” said Weeden.

The school has been impressive throughout its first three group games.

“He certainly gets us round the park really well. We’ve been in tight spots in games and he’s put his hand up and dug us out of a bit of a hole.”

He added: “Luke’s added plenty for us from the back. His power and yardage coming out is really important for us, and just his ability to create something out of nothing with his speed and footwork.”

And while Westfields will go into their quarter-final clash as heavy favourites, Weeden says they won’t be taking their opponents lightly.

“I’ve said the last couple of years that the hardest game we find is the quarter-final. We’ve struggled in this game year in, year out because we come up against a side that we often don’t play regularly,” he said.

“We’ve had a look at All Saints and we think they’re a good side. They’ve got some good middles, their half is very crafty, he’s been the catalyst for a lot of the good things they do in attack, and they just keep working – they’re just a side that puts in for 60 minutes, so they’ll be tough to beat.”