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West Maitland has produced a talented bunch of juniors with eight players from the same team in Harold Matthews squads for 2016.
Last year’s premiership defending side will feature heavily in the state under-16 competition from this weekend with six Newcastle Knights and one each at Cronulla and Manly.
Centre Shaun Casey, prop Kingsley Jennings, NSW All Schools under-15 hooker Tyran Ott and NSW PSSA representative Jock Sullivan have all been named for the Knights on Saturday with centre
Jai Bieman-King and forward Sam Jones both out injured.
Newcastle will travel to Brookvale Oval to take on Manly, who former West Maitland teammate Callen Scarr scored a deal with this season.
However, Scarr, a NSW All Schools player last year, will be forced to watch the opening round encounter from the sidelines because of injury.
Also hailing from the West Maitland nursery is national little athletics champion Angus Ernst, who will line up at halfback for the Cronulla Sharks against the South West Sydney Academy in Camden on Saturday.
“It’s a fantastic effort,” Ott’s father, Maitland Pickers coach and former Knights junior mentor Trevor said.
“They were lucky enough to stick together and win the last two competitions in first division and now they have great representation in these Harold Matthews sides.”
Showing further depth from the same West Maitland group, five players were part of the extended Newcastle Rebels under-16 representative training squad.
Max Rae, Declan Keegan, Michael Peacock, Sam Gratten and Ben Vale were all in the mix for NSW Country Championship spots.
In other news, Maitland under-18 grand finalist Pasami Saulo will be the starting prop for the Knights’ SG Ball side in round one this weekend while former local junior Nash Birch will come off the bench.
Rutherford’s Jesse Cronin was also named as a replacement in the state under-18 competition but for the Parramatta Eels after captaining their Harold Matthews grand final campaign last year.
NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
- SG Ball: 1 Matt Cooper 2 Lachlan Walmsley 3 Brayden Musgrove 4 Tommy Sau 5 Sam McIntyre 6 Tyler Kearsey 7 Brendan O’Hagan 8 Soane Hufanga 9 Tom Starling (c) 10 Pasami Saulo 11 Jayden Hocking 12 Lyndon Hills 13 Kurtis Dark 14 Nash Birch 15 Luke Casson 16 Will Davies 17 Matt Croker 18 Callum Wesley
- Harold Matthews: 1 Logan Humphries 2 Teva Mataora 3 Shaun Casey 4 Toby Marks 5 Finn Carlin 6 Jock Madden 7 Phoenix Crossland 8 Kingsley Jennings 9 Tyran Ott 10 Tom Baker 11 Timanu Alexander 12 Joel Dark 13 Brock Gardner (c) 14 Cameron Davies 15 Ross Haidle 16 Lachlan Pope 17 Jock Sullivan 19 Toa Matoka 20 Ethan Gine 21 Jack Brown