With the second half of the split round 7 matches to happen this weekend Hills, Windsor and Belrose sit on top of the table, with Hills having a remarkable positive difference of 112 after just six games. With the extreme wet weather of the past couple of weeks it almost guarantees this weekend’s matches to be pure slugfests.
In this week’s feature match Western Suburbs play host to the Windsor Wolves at Campbelltown Stadium at 1:30pm on Saturday. This venue will also be hosting an international match between South Africa and Nuie as well as a NSW Universities v QLD Universities match. Along with the Ron Massey Cup fixture, it's set to be a great day of footy.
The Magpies in the Sydney Shield are improving every week, proven by the scores of their games so far; 4-64, 24-48, 34-35, 26-26, 17-16, 42-12. These first six rounds according to the scoreboard indicate the gradual improvement that Wests have shown. If this is what every coach in Rugby League desires then what is the coach of Western Suburbs Daniel Beardshaw’s secret?
“A lot of the boys are buying into what we are trying to say at the moment, and a lot of young players have come in to the side, so just trying to keep things really simple and really focus on the core basics” Beardshaw explains.
It sounds easy the way, however there's no doubt it is working. This weekend will be an extremely tough fixture for the Magpies, who face a very strong team in the Wolves.
“We have to step it up, they have a big pack, so we have to get off the line well and defend in numbers, and make sure we dig in,” Beardshaw conveys.
The forwards are going to have a massive say in the outcome of this week’s match due to the weather so that is one place Wests will surely have to match the Wolves in. With the young Wests Tigers Holden Cup players coming in to Sydney Shield it provides more impotence, but it has its struggles “as we only get the boys for an hour session on a Friday night, but they are really good and are building a strong mateship with the rest of the boys,” says Beardshaw.
In this week’s split round Cabramatta face Guildford and Asquith come up against Wentworthville, Peninsula battle Hills and East Campbelltown combat Blacktown.
