Despite Sunday’s Caldwell Cup decider loss to Illawarra Central West coach Dean Oxley is still predicting “six to eight” of his Blue Bulls will earn a call-up in the NSW Country Cockatoos’ initial squad, which is expected to be released on Thursday.
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Incumbents Dan Ryan and Charlie French, from Parkes and Forbes respectively, were both superb in the Blue Bulls’ country week campaign at Warren and as a result Oxley said the duo shouldn’t have any trouble retaining their places, while Mahe Fangupo is considered locked in too.
No wonder, the Forbes Platypi star was named player-of-the-tournament on the weekend and played for the Cockatoos in 2014 after leading Central West to a Caldwell Cup win at Mudgee.
“Mahe was superb all weekend, a deserved player-of-the-tournament and will make that squad,” Oxley said.
“Dan Ryan was great, Charlie French was great. They were part of a really strong forward pack that all performed, and they’ve been at that level before and proven themselves so I can’t see why they’d be left out if they’re available.
“I’d expect six to eight players to be picked alongside a lot of the Illawarra and Newcastle-Hunter guys. I’m sure there’ll be a couple of Mid North Coast players too and no offence to them, but I don’t think they brought the same physicality as the other (Caldwell Cup) sides.”
Outside the obvious, Oxley highlighted the likes of Orange Emus’ Nick Hughes-Clapp, Cowra’s Chris Miller, Dubbo Kangaroos’ Mark Baldwin and CSU Bathurst’s Lochie Robinson as huge chances to earn a spot, along with a couple of smokeys, most notably Bathurst Bulldogs winger Harry Webber.
“Buzz Webber, I think he’s played himself into a Country jersey, he was excellent,” Oxley said, also highlighting Parkes’ Lloyd Rogers as a chance from Central West’s halves.
“Bu there’s more outside those guys as well. Tom Green scored a double in the final, our front-row was really strong, everyone played well to be fair. There’s a lot of talent in this team, in the west in general, I want this group to stay together.”
In terms of Central West’s colts, coach Scott Hatch actually struggled to single out any real standouts over the weekend, which finished with a 53-10 loss to Newcastle-Hunter in the Rowlands Cup final.
But Mudgee’s Alex Saint was just that in the Baby Bulls’ first-up thrashing of Central Coast while Emus’ Sam Greatbatch was arguably the side’s best. He scored a double on Saturday and despite suffering a broken nose in the decider loss he the side’s best on Sunday, scoring another well-deserved try in that game.
Dubbo halfback Pat Berryman was strong, as was five-eighth Harry O’Leary, although he picked up a knee injury on Saturday and forced out of Sunday’s final.
Orange City’s Nick Fisher flew under the radar at hooker but among the side’s best, and has past experience in NSW Country sides too.
“I’m sure there’ll be a few guys that get named but honestly, like I said leading in, we were just a pretty well-rounded side, I’m not sure there was ever going to be any really obvious stand-outs,” Hatch said.
“I hope we get plenty in the Cockatoos colts squad though, this is a group of guys I think can go on to big things so that’d be the next step for a lot of them.”
There is no Corellas team picked from the women’s sevens championship, instead players are identified for University of New England Lions’ AON Uni 7s program, which involves a high performance camp in late May.
Although the Blue Bullettes finished a somewhat disappointing fourth, 2017 player-of-the-tournament Sharnah Stevens was outstanding again and skipper Mandy Scott was consistently strong. Youngster Eden Heke impressed as well.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
