Blayney’s Grace Mooney’s 2018 season of football will be getting off to a warm start this weekend when she heads to Muswellbrook to play a solid 100 minutes of league.
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Its not league tag either, it’s the real deal with a full complement of 13 players and a handful of reserves that are heading to the Northern Country gala selection day.
Mooney was informed of her selection in the Western Women’s Rugby League in mid-January and she believes that the expected warm conditions on Saturday will certainly put her to the test.
“I’m probably not as fit as I could be but we have a few reserves so it will be interesting,” she said.
This Saturday Mooney will be discovering just which position she will be taking for the rest of the competition.
“I played hooker for my first time and I think that I’m playing centre for a change, get to move around the ground a bit I guess,” she said.
After Saturday’s trial matches under the watchful eye of coach Jessica Skinner, Mooney will be a part of Group 10 women’s coach Jordan Dwyer’s newly formed Western Women’s Rugby League side as premiership red-hot favourites.
That competition will see them up against sides from Group 11, Woodbridge Cup and the Castlereagh League, and the team is the pick of the crop.
Dwyer has named a 22-strong squad littered with league tag representative players, and premiership winning nines Hawks girls, ahead of his side’s first game against Group 11 on February 24.
“For us, we’ve picked a few extra girls. We’re fortunate we’ve got a good group that’s committed and distance isn’t as big a hurdle for us as it is for other teams.
“We’ve got a few extras that can help out other teams. Where ever we can help, we will.
“We’re all in it together. This (competition) is in its infancy.”
Six incumbent Western Rams league tag stars will line-up in Group 10’s first women’s tackle side, which is dominated by Orange Hawks and Bathurst girls from St Pat’s and Panthers
“There’s a good nucleus of a really good team there,” Dwyer said.