Central Coast Oztag teams have continued their dominance of the NSW representative Oztag scene, claiming the overall Club Championships, following the completion of the NSW Junior State Cup on February 23.
While the Under 12s-17s NSW State Cup was interrupted by weather in February, the Under 9s-U11s tournament was played in far drier conditions, with Central Oztag adding more silverware to its trophy cabinet, winning the Girls 11s division for the second year in a row.
The club’s 9s, 10s and 11s Boys also put on a show, all making it to their respective semi-finals, with the 10s Girls just narrowly losing out in their quarter final.
Central Coast Oztag Director, Dale Berg, said “the club had been going from strength to strength, with some exceptional junior teams at the forefront of that success.
“Our 15s Girls have won their last three tournaments in a row, including Nationals.
“They’ve probably been the standout team over the past 18 months and they’re all looking towards Australian selection later in 2020.
“We’d expect to have five or six of those girls strong contenders to make those teams.
“Our 16’s Girls have gone back to back from Nationals into the State Cup.
“They’ve come a long way in the past 12 months and have gone from scraping into the finals at most tournaments to winning two in a row.
“Our 14s Boys also won their first State Cup and are another side that has improved immensely over the past year.
“Then our 11s Girls won their State Cup.
“They’ve been quite a strong team since in the Under 9s and the coach there has done a great job in getting as many girls to trial for the side as possible,” Berg said.
“We’ve had huge growth in the number of girls playing Oztag in the last two to three years and I think when you look at our results, our girls have been particularly strong.
“In the last few years we’ve tried to get as many of our representative players in to coach our girls’ teams as possible and that has made a real difference.
“The skill level is going up year on year and I think that improvement and growth is only going to continue on the Central Coast,” he said.
Berg also seemed confident that Central Coast Oztag would continue their strong form at the NSW Senior State Cup in March.
“We have a lot of girls who will be playing in our 20s Girls side who played in the Junior State Cup as well, so it’s exciting to see the younger players push through into the senior ranks.
“Our Men’s sides are also going through a bit of a transitional period and I think we’ll have a lot of the 16s and 18s Boys push through into the seniors in the next few years as well.
“We’ve got four players from the 17s Boys side last year playing in our Men’s Opens side at Senior State Cup this year, so it’s exciting times ahead,” Berg said.
Source:
Media release, Feb 24
Central Coast Oztag