Gunnedah's Darcy Hannaford and Ben McCumstie were part of the Central North under-12s side that fell agonisingly short of the NSW Country Championships silverware in Tamworth on the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The side, which Nik Hannaford was also an assistant coach of, produced a mighty effort over the two days making it through to the final where they were edged out by Hunter 10-5.
McCumstie packed down up front for the Kookaburras while Hannaford played flanker. Also the sides vice-captain he had to watch the final from the sidelines after breaking his collarbone.
The Kookaburras were the walking wounded by the final with Jock Sides also out with a broken arm.
Coach Chris Fowler said it was an excellent effort from the boys over the weekend.
"We were only a smallish side so to get to the final was fantastic," he said.
Against a physically bigger Hunter side, they struck first and led 5-nil at half-time, but Hunter outmuscled them in what was a disrupted second half.
The game was moved twice due to injuries. With time not stopped that probably helped Hunter a bit, Fowler said.
"That gave their bigger guys a bit of a rest and they got a bit of a charge up in the second half," he said.
To counter for their lack of size they tried to play an expansive, which worked well.
"They played some good footy, entertaining footy and played as a team," Fowler said.
Jonty Fowler, who plays for Narrabri but attends St Mary's in Gunnedah, steered them superbly around the park from five-eighth and was duly named the best back of the tournament for the 12s. He was also voted the Kookaburras' players' player.
Ben Sawyer was named best back, James Irons best forward, Ben DiDonna the most improved while Darcy Brazel picked up the coaches award.
The under-14s for which Jim Brady was to suit up for but was unable to due to injury, also finished runners-up going down to Central West 14-5 in their final.
After finishing runners-up in the under-13s last year, the 14s went into the championships with high hopes, and were all over Central West in the first half.
They had them virtually pinned in their half but just rushed things a bit in attack and were unable to turn their dominance into points.
"We just couldn't convert possession and territory into points and unfortunately in such a close game it really hurt us," coach Warren Park said.
Central West came out strongly in the second half, only some great scrambling defence from the Kookaburras keeping them out for as long as they did.
The Kookaburras hit back a minute later through inside centre Ed Montgomery but they were pretty well straight back under siege. The pressure eventually told with Central West kicking ahead again.
"The defence was great all weekend and it was through the game today," Park said.
"Unfortunately our attack didn't quite fire."
They only conceded three tries for the weekend, the other coming in their pool game against Central West, which they won two tries to one.
"They're a gutsy bunch of kids," Park said.
"The distance between us all and the limited time we have had together, they just played fantastically all weekend."