Junior Rep Trials

[Lauren]

PATHWAYS

Sandhills to sets of six​

Wests Tigers Thu 14 Dec 2023, 08:49 PM

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Seven days after tackling the notorious Wanda Sandhills, our best juniors will be tackling each other at St Gregory’s College Campbelltown.

More than 300 of Wests Tigers up-and-coming pathways players will be involved in Saturday’s all-important trial games, to select the club’s junior representative teams for the 2024 season.

An early start at St Greg’s will see all ten of Wests Tigers junior rep teams in action, both male and female.

The morning will involve intra-club trials for our male teams with Wests taking on Balmain in the Harold Matthews (U17s) and SG Ball (U19s) age groups, and Wests Macarthur playing Balmain in the Andrew Johns Cup (U16s) and Laurie Daley Cup (U18s) trials.
Our female teams will take on junior rep squads from Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

Pathways & Junior Recruitment Manager Shannon Gallant training with NRLW team
Head of pathways & junior recruitment, Shannon Gallant says a lot goes into making this type of event run smoothly.
“There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle purely because of the scale of our junior pathways,” said Gallant.

We have more junior rep teams than any other club, and we’re finding that more and more juniors are wanting to be in our system.
Shannon Gallant

“We have some great people looking after our junior rep teams, including Bronson Harrison and Christian Urso, and I’m sure everything will go smoothly.”

Gallant says last weekend’s all-in fitness session at Wanda was a good lead-in to Saturday’s matches.
“They knew they’d had a training session that’s for sure,” Gallant said.
“Like we did last Saturday, we’ll kick things off nice and early to avoid the hottest part of the day.
“St Greg’s have been great in helping us put this together and I want to thank them for their continued support.”

Jess Bygate, Wests Tigers Women’s Football Manager, is delighted with the level of interest around female pathways.
“There has certainly been a noticeable uplift in interest following on from our inaugural season in the NRLW,” said Bygate.

We have a lot of new girls coming into the system, who all want to follow a similar path to the top.
Jess Bygate

“It’s brilliant that we can now offer such a rewarding incentive to these young female players.”
Members and fans wanting to catch a glimpse of the club’s budding junior rep players are free to come along and ‘show your stripes’.

Andrew Johns Cup (U16s)
Macarthur Wests Tigers vs Balmain U16s
Kick-off 8:30am
Harold Matthews Cup (U17s)
Wests Magpies vs Balmain Tigers
Kick-off 8:30am
Laurie Daley Cup (U18s)
Macarthur Wests Tigers vs Balmain Tigers (U18s)
Kick-off 9:45am
SG Ball Cup (U19s)
Wests Magpies vs Balmain Tigers
Kick-off 11:00am
Lisa Fiaola Cup (U17s)
Wests Tigers vs Canterbury Bulldogs
Kick-off 9:45am
Tarsha Gale Cup (U19s)
Wests Tigers vs Canterbury Bulldogs
Kick-off 11:00am

 

[innsaneink]

Good luck to all OUR players competing and well done to Shannon bronson & Co this would, not be easy to organise... Awesome we have such great numbers to choose from.

These are not open trials are they?

Pathways players are selected from where... Development squads?

 

[innsaneink]

Anybody go?

 

[KingRobbie]

Anybody go?

I didn’t go, but the contracted junior rep players (the players some might’ve heard of, Onitoni Large etc.) don’t play in those trials.

It’s mainly to fill in the gaps in the squads for the players who aren’t already signed to contracts with Wests Tigers to earn a spot.

 

[BZN]

Good luck to all OUR players competing and well done to Shannon bronson & Co this would, not be easy to organise... Awesome we have such great numbers to choose from.

These are not open trials are they?

Pathways players are selected from where... Development squads?

This is such a great initiative by WT in getting all players from Wests Magpies, Balmain and WT together as one, and then sorting the good ones out from the unfortunate not so good ones.
Imo, things are really starting to rumble and I'm really looking forward to Our future.
I also have to admit it 'seems like' atpit, Cochise and his cohorts have started something positive.
But, for me, the jury has not yet reached a unanimous verdict.

 

[innsaneink]

I didn’t go, but the contracted junior rep players (the players some might’ve heard of, Onitoni Large etc.) don’t play in those trials.

It’s mainly to fill in the gaps in the squads for the players who aren’t already signed to contracts with Wests Tigers to earn a spot.

Im guessing theyre invited trials...not open?

 

[LeichhardtTiger]

This is such a great initiative by WT in getting all players from Wests Magpies, Balmain and WT together as one, and then sorting the good ones out from the unfortunate not so good ones.
Imo, things are really starting to rumble and I'm really looking forward to Our future.
I also have to admit it 'seems like' atpit, Cochise and his cohorts have started something positive.
But, for me, the jury has not yet reached a unanimous verdict.

Back in the Day, my son went to the Basketball Trials in Year 5 at St Pats Strathfield. The trouble was, they plonked them in with the Year 6 kids. Guess who got selected - all the year 6 kids. But he stuck to it and the next year he got picked. By Year 12 he was Captain of the Pulteney Grammer private school First V in Adelaide.. From little things, big things grow.

 

[KingRobbie]

Im guessing theyre invited trials...not open?

Not open; each team would’ve been training for weeks now in squads of about 50 players for each team and then yesterday’s games would be used to further narrow down the squads.

 

[innsaneink]

Not open; each team would’ve been training for weeks now in squads of about 50 players for each team and then yesterday’s games would be used to further narrow down the squads.

Logistically a massive exercise, and hugely important for the club in years to come.
This is where it all starts and we really need to start to capitlise on what we have at our front door