Our under 9s started their campaign against the visiting Norths Pirates.

The Pirates were a formidable team who were well drilled and organised.

Our young team gave them a good run for their money.

Charlie Sturgiss’s strong runs up and great turn-overs were the feature of this game.

Clancy Duguid and Tom Pullen were great in stopping the Pirates breaks in their tracks and the “Energiser Bunny.”

Drew Langfield tackled like a machine.

Nate Gunn was as elusive as always and found his way to the try line after a red hot pick up, on the back of good run by Hugh Williams and a great clean out by Tom and Charlie, and then out-running the defence to the south-west corner.

In their next game they played our neighbours the Forbes Platypi. Jock, Seamus, Luke and Riley got much more involved in this game and began getting their hands, and everything else, dirty to good effect.

Similarly, Deacon continued to use his speed to chase down attackers that had made a break.

The cleanout at the ruck improved in this game and Cowra had more ball to work with as a result.

Seamus got a couple of good turnovers by ripping the ball directly off the attacking player.

As Seamus continues to develop this skill the under 9s will have greater possession for our nippy guys to play with.

Tom also pulled off some cracking clean outs.

Due to their being 11 teams entered we needed to play an extra game to ensure all visiting teams got to play three games so our third game was against the Orange Emus White team.

It was a tough match but we had some help Charlie from the Norths Pirates gave us a hand, as did all the players from the Parkes Boars.

The Emus White team were very good and whilst we were initially a little shell-shocked we came got more competitive as the game went on.

Charlie went hard all game and got through a mountain of work and we were thankful to have him.

The Parkes players also played very well and were rotated in on a continually to give everyone some game time.

Nate, Drew, Clancy, and Tom were our busiest players in this game and Nate may have temporarily taken the title from Drew for taking the most hard knocks.

Our fourth and last game was against one of the other Orange Emus sides.

We were wet and tired but everyone got a bit of a lift when five year old Tommy Casey stepped up from under 7s for a game with his older mates.

Everyone ripped in early against a very good Emus side.

Clancy was running freely and more players fell for his step in the game than any other.

When Tom Pullen pulls off a good clean out it is simply a beautiful thing; his cleans are accurate, dominant and result in fast ball for us.

Charlie was again leading from the front and his steals were a feature.

Tom Casey had obviously been paying attention and began stealing a few for himself.

When making a hit up he was dispossessed by an Emu and he had to chase the perpetrator the length of the field, where luckily his mates Clancy and Deacon had delayed the Emu just long enough for Tommy to catch up and successfully steal the ball back.

The points this week went to Charlie and Tom three points, Clancy and Drew two points, Nate one point.

Well done to our under 9s for playing four very hard games.

They are a young side and they never give up or hang their heads.

Sunday was not their best day but it was another day of learning and enjoying each other’s company.

And if they ever conserve the energy they expend in-between games…...well look out!