Our U14 Parkes Marist Junior Rugby League tackle team has pulled through a rocky finals series to take out the Lachlan District premiership. Ending the season as minor premiers the team found themselves in a tricky position week one of finals. Coach Dave Robinson said the team hadn't played some of their best footy leading up to the grand final with a loss in the major semi and a close win in their qualifying final. "We actually probably had our worst game in the major semi and then we only just scrapped by in the qualifier," he said. "We were able to win that extra opportunity and we were able to show everyone what we could do in the big game." Leading up to the big dance against Canowindra they were first up against the team in the major semi final. Unfortunately the Parkes team went down 35-24 missing out on their opportunity to advance straight through to the grand final and having to come up against Red Bend in the qualifying final. "We had an extra-time victory over Red Bend which the boys had a lot of emotion in." A 30-22 score line advanced the Parkes boys to the grand final where they again met Canowindra. "We were able to put it all back together the following week against Canowindra in the grand final," Robinson said. A dominate 36-14 win over Canowindra sealed the season for the Parkes U14 side converting a minor premiership into a premiership win. Robinson said the team was very balanced this year which is something that makes the team standout from others in the competition. "A lot of teams have one or two main players, we have five or six across the field which meant we could play more naturally across the whole field and if one area was covered by the opposition that allowed another area to be stronger. "In the grand final Canowindra put a lot of focus on marking our centre Rhyley Moore, who was the competition's leading try scorer, however that weakened them in other areas that we were able to capitalise on." The grand final win was a massive team effort but a player that stood out to Robinson was team captain Ari Albert. "He (Ari) scored three tries in the grand final. Scoring any tries in grand finals is a good thing but he had three in the grand final which was massive. "Many people in attendance stated that he was unlucky not to be named player of the grand final." Robinson also identified 13-year-old front rower Jaylen Richardson who played a massive game, Rhyley Moore who had a great game despite being targeted by Canowindra's defence, and Tyler Butt, Jake Gosper, Jack Robinson, Billy White and Jaxon Clarke all had stand-out games with Clarke and White kicking at 100 per cent in very tough conditions. The focus for the team this year was to turn a bunch of young boys who love footy into a bunch of young men who enjoy playing footy. "There's been a fair bit of growth throughout the whole team both mentally and physically." Robinson said the U14 boys are one of the hardest age groups to coach due to physical development differences where kids can be aged 12 to 14. "Overall I definitely thought it was a very successful season," he said. The team believed they were capable to claim this year's title so they set the goal at the start of the season to not only make the grand final but win it, and that's exactly what they did. Robinson sends a big thank you to all of the parents involved with the team this season and the squad of 24 boys who worked tirelessly to earn the 2025 title.
