The Canberra Raiders Junior representative teams will play on either sides of the country this weekend, when they take to the field for round two action in the Harold Matthews Cup and SG Ball Cup competitions.
The Raiders Harold Matthews Cup team (Under 16’s) are coming off a 12-12 draw against the Western Sydney Academy and will face the South Western Sydney Academy of Sport this weekend in a bid to register their first win of the season at Kirkham Oval in Sydney.
Coach Adam Kyle said the Harold Matthews team is hoping to clean up the team’s ball control this weekend after letting some opportunities slide in their drawn match last weekend.
“This week we have really been focusing on our own performances. Our defence effort last week against WSAS was excellent. But our error rate was not good,” Kyle said. “We know SWAS will be ready to play this Saturday and if we don’t respect the ball and the opponent it will be a tough game for us.
Kyle said the side had picked up a few injuries in round one and the squad’s depth would be tested early on in the season.
“We have a few injuries out of round one so we have a few team changes and positional changes for the boys,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for some new players to come in and show us what they can do. It an exciting challenge taking on SWAS they are always competitive and we know that they will bounce back strongly after being beaten last week against the Sharks.”
The Raiders SG Ball team will make the long haul flight to Perth to take on the West Coast Pirates on their home turf at Curtin University and their Coach Dean Souter said the focus for their side would be getting off to a stronger start.
“Despite a good comeback last week, we really need to address how we started the game,” Souter said. “Letting a team jump to a 12 point lead early in the game will hurt us down the track if we don’t get on top of it”
The Pirates are coming off a 76-12 loss to the Sharks and Souter said he’s expecting a tougher contest from them this weekend.
“The Perth side will want to see improvement in their performance from last week, they got beaten in a lop-sided score line against the Sharks who are a very good side.” He said. “In my view this makes Perth dangerous this week and it’s important the team treats the trip over as business and not recreation.
“In such a short competition it’s important to put our best game up each and every week because at the end there are very slim margins that determine whether we play finals football or not. All we can do is keep working hard each week to reach our teams potential.”
Harold Matthews Cup
SWSAS v Canberra
Kirkham Oval, Saturday 20 February
1:30pm
SWSAS: 1 MANOA VEIKOSO 2 AUSTIN HAIR 3 JAZZAIAH SCHAAFHAUSEN 4 AIDAN MOSTYN 5 PAUL ANAMANI 6 HENRY MANU 7 STEPHEN DENGATE 8 CAMERON HIGBID 9 LOGAN HAYDEN © 10 WILL ANGEL 11 OSCAR CHONG NEE 12 LACHLAN DEETH 13 ALFIE TROPEA 14 ELVIS OLOAGA 15 MAVONI TUIFUA 16 JORDAN MOLIO 17 JACK HIGHGATE 18 JUNIOR AFAMILIONA 19 CHRIS PATOLO 20 MITCHELL MILES 21 DANIEL PAYNE 23 AQEEL MOOSA 24 KING ISAAKO 25 JACK LAFOLAFO
CANBERRA: 1 JACOB CHURCH 2 AUSTIN MCDOUGALL 3 HARLEY SMITH-SHIELDS 4 DANIEL GOODWIN 5 KAYNE LAUNDESS 6 LACHLAN EVESTON 7 JOHN VELOUDOS 8 MATTHEW DRAGISIC 9 JOE ROBERTS 10 ALEXAVIER PUNOU 11 KALI TANESI 12 JONAH LATU 13 KRISTIAN JENSEN © 14 GUS MARSHALL 15 TYLER PETERS 16 WAYNE PARKER 17 LOUIS JANG 18 TATE BROOKE 19 CHARLIE WOOLFORD 20 BRAYDEN ROBERTSON 21 SOLOMONE KAUFUSI 22 TREMAYNE CHATFIELD 23 MITCHELL ATKINSON 24 BRENDAN SALTNER COACH ADAM KYLE
SG BALL CUP
Perth v Canberra
Curtin University, Saturday 20 February
11:00am
PERTH: 1 CURTIS DANSEY SMALLER 2 CAMERON GRIMES-BRAY 3 SIAILAOA FAAFUA 4 CHRISTIAN SMITH 5 BRYCE MCROBERT 6 BAYLEY GILL 7 KYLE TUKAPUA 8 TAIAPA GRAHAM 9 FLETCHER HARROLD 10 DAMIAN DARLINGTON 11 BRANDON WRIGHT 12 MARCELL KAUTAI 13 JESSE DAY 14 SIMON TABAKANACA 15 PAYDEN PORTER 16 MALAKAI CHAN BOON 17 WILL FINAU 18 JOSHUA BROUGHTON-SPARK COACH RYAN GUNDRY
CANBERRA: 1 ANDRE NIKO 2 JEDIDIAH SIMBIKEN 3 SEBASTIAN KRIS 4 MATHEW LYONS 5 DAINE SPENCER 6 SATO KETIA-OPO 7 LACHLAN COOPER © 8 TEVITA FEHOKO 9 SAM FINNEGAN 10 TIM MERRITT 17 DYLAN CLARK 12 SHARMAH SCHMIDT 13 DAN KEIR 23 JESSE DENT 15 JACK BASTICK 16 FRANCIS-SOAKAI TAI 24 LAZARUS VALEEPU 18 LUKE BURTON 19 TOM WILLIAMS 12 JAKE NOTARAS 21 DUSTIN LITSTER 22 KEINAN GROGAN 23 QUINLYN CANNON 10 JACOB FIELD
