0N THE FLY: Picker Candice Clay finds some space.
It was a Mother’s Day to remember for the Maitland Pickers in 2012 as the club’s female team ran out convincing 34-point winners on Sunday.
The Pickers, featuring around 10 mothers in the playing roster, defeated Minchinbury 52-18 in round five of the Sydney Women’s Metropolitan Rugby League competition.
“It was a great day and we have about 10 mums in the team so that made it pretty special,” Pickers skipper Bec Young said.
“There were a couple of girls that were unsure if they could play, especially being lunch time on Mother’s Day, but in the end we had a good turn out and it was like Mother’s Day out at the footy.”
The fixture was played at Maitland Sportsground and it was the second time in as many weeks that the Pickers have triumphed on their home patch of turf.
Last week it was a 38-22 result against Auburn that gave the Pickers their first win of their inaugural season.
The Pickers women managed to back it up again on the weekend and hooker Julie Young was the star of the show.
The NSW and Australian representative scored four of the Pickers 10 tries while former state representative Kylie Hilder crossed for a double on debut.
Fullback Mel Sutton, five-eighth Casey Cameron, winger Sarah Ross and skipper Young also added four-pointers for the Pickers.
Cameron added the extras on five occasions, while Kyia Simon also kicked a conversion.
The performance was one the Pickers best to date and skipper Young put it down to extra training.
“We had an extra session on the Friday and everything we practiced in the team run just seemed to come off in the game,” she said.
The Pickers women take on Redfern this weekend.
In other women’s rugby league news, both Bec and Julie Young as well as Candice Clay have been training with the NSW squad.
If selected in the final team the Pickers trio will play Queensland in a State Of Origin clash on June 23, which doubles as a curtain-raiser to the Penrith-Parramatta match as part of the NRL’s women in league round.
