Gunnedah’s Cameron Mitchell and Josh Leys will suit up for the Central North open’s side at this weekend’s Country Championships at Port Macquarie.
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Both were part of last year’s crusade where the Kookaburras pushed Newcastle Hunter before beating Central Coast to retain their place in the Caldwell Cup.
They are among only a handful of players backing up in what is a bit of a changing of the guard.
Leys will pack in the front row while Mitchell will figure in the backline somewhere, probably on the wing, for what will be the 27-year old’s third campaign with the Kookaburras.
The first they won the Richardson Shield, earning elevation to the Caldwell Cup for last year’s championships.
“It should be fun, should be a good trip,” he said.
“Everyone gets along. It’s a good bunch of boys.”
The Kookaburras go into the championships ranked third and have drawn Illawarra in their Caldwell Cup semi-final.
They play that at 1.10pm with the winner to play either Newcastle Hunter or Central West for the silverware.
‘It’ll be tough no doubt just like last year being in that top tier,” Mitchell said.
“But I’ll reckon we’ll go pretty close.”
Expecting to face much bigger outfits, they’ll look to counter that with a running game.
“We’ll look to try and run them around the park and try and get around them, and hopefully the forwards can get on top of them,” Mitchell said.
Co-coach Hunter Harley is optimistic about their chances, despite having lost the nucleus of the squad they’ve had for the last couple of years.
“On paper we’re probably not as strong,” Harley said.
“(But) We’ve probably got a team that is playing better as a team than in the last three years.”
One of the things he really likes, certainly as far as the backs, is the flexibility he has, with most of the players adept in several positions.
Mitchell for one can play pretty well anywhere in the backline. Centre is probably his preferred position, but has also played a bit at 10.
On Saturday he was at 12 as the Red Devils kicked-off their season with a 21-all draw with Moree. It was a good start, although there was a bit of emptiness not quite getting the result.
”It was a good feeling and a bad feeling,” he said.
“We could have played a lot better. There was a lot of dropped ball and the talk dropped off in the second half.”
Still there were plenty of encouraging signs.
“It’s looking up from here,” Mitchell said.