College’s knock-out blow

By Marc McGowan
EUMEMMERRING College’s Arrive Alive Cup campaign is over at the second hurdle after losing 48-6 to New South Wales school Chifley College in Gundagai last week.
The Hallam-based school won the state championship for the second year running to qualify for the nation-wide rugby league knock-out tournament.
Eumemmerring eased past South Australian champion Aberfoyle Park in round one of the Tier B section of the Arrive Alive Cup at Casey Fields this month.
But a raft of injuries to key players and some late withdrawals due to the flu hampered Eumemmerring’s chances against a strong opponent.
Nathan Paiala and Jerome Henry were the locals’ standouts, but coach Travis McIntosh conceded that a host of errors over the afternoon made it difficult for his side to be competitive.
“There were just a couple of basic errors again and we haven’t been too good with the way we start our games,” McIntosh said. “The boys were pretty good in patches – defensively they were strong and they got themselves in good field position to set up a couple of plays.
“But we dropped balls and our general ball security was pretty poor. They created a lot of their own pressure with bad ball security or a couple of knock-ons or missed tackles.”
But McIntosh is confident his school is on the right track and hopes it can qualify for the Tier A draw of the Arrive Alive Cup in the not-too-distant future.
The school’s sports academy program caters for rugby league and the number of students participating in the sport has risen from six in 2007 to more than 30 this year.
Eumemmerring students Jerome Henry, Aaron Laasia and Luke Waiti played in Melbourne Storm’s under-18 SG Ball Cup side that made the grand final of the competition last month.
McIntosh believes it is only his school’s depth that needs improving to be more competitive in the coming years.
“We’ve definitely got the players who are just as good … but it’s down to our depth and having that strength right across the board,” he said.
“They’ve learned where the benchmark is and it’s good to come up against good-quality opposition.
“I took up some of the younger players from Year 10 to watch to get an idea of what the standard was like. It was a good opportunity for them for next year when we re-enter the competition to find out what the expectation is, what the standard is like and the intensity.”
Teachers from Chifley College and Illawarra Sports High School have expressed their interest in visiting Eumemmerring for friendly matches later in the year.