Coach of the Blayney Under 12’s touch football team, Damien Barry, said that he was having a chat with a few other player’s parents who were keen on seeing a team formed, but at first the numbers were low.

“We only had one week to get the registrations in and we only had about seven kids, but we needed eight as a minimum,” he said. “We ended up with fourteen.”

The team has players ranging in age from nine to twelve, and Barry says it makes no difference to their tenacity and spirit.

“We have two that are nine and three that are ten and the size difference is pretty big at that age,” he said, “but we’re twelve rounds in and they haven’t lost a game.

“Once we had all the twelve year olds away on an excursion with school, and all we had were the six juniors who weren’t in years five and six and two players from Joeys,

“So we had six players up against a full team of twelve year olds in Orange and they still won three to one.” 

When the season launched in October, Barry said that although expectations were high, the sides inexperience in touch had some doubting the result.

“Some people were saying that it was all for fun, and just have a go, because some of them had never played before, but they’ve all come together and played like a team that’s been together for years.”

The team will be launching their tilt at finals glory this week when they head to Orange for the first semi.