By Tallon Smith

The Windsor Wolves have won the 2024 Shellharbour Sharks Shootout and the $6000 prize money on offer after sweeping their games at Ron Costello Oval on Saturday afternoon.

The Wolves completed their run with a 24-10 win over the host club in the Final, after qualifying via an 18-0 nil shutout of Wentworthville and a narrow 8-6 win over the Stingrays of Shellharbour in the semi finals.

The Sharks opened the scoring in the second minute before the Wolves hit back for a 6-all half time scoreline.

With the game evenly poised, the Wolves emerged from the half time huddle with renewed energy and broke the game wide open with three quick tries to open up a 24-6 lead. 

That became too much for the Sharks to chase down in the final ten minutes, and despite conceding a late consolation try, the Wolves finished as Champions after an impressive pre-season performance.

Windsor Captain Troy Dargin said that he was particularly happy with his side’s defensive effort, which was the standout component of their impressive performances.

“It’s just a good way to consolidate and get a good indication of where our pre-season is at, but if that’s what we are bringing to a tournament or our regular season games I think we’re going to be a pretty hard team to beat defensively,” he said.

“In any knockout as the games go on it gets harder and harder, and I think at the end of the day, not to take any credit away from Shellharbour, we just kept turning up for each other.

“They did as well, but the ball bounced a bit more in our favour.”

Windsor interchange player Brendan Oxford described the tournament as enjoyable, with testing their skills against country outfits in a rapid three-match format being a highlight of the day.

“Yeah it has been [enjoyable], we’ve had a really good pre-season, it’s a real big test to come out and play back to back to back, [we’re] really feeling it now,” he said.

“Yeah absolutely, they’re [the country players] relentless, they’re quick, agile and fit, and they just don’t give up.”

Shellharbour Sharks skipper James Ralphs said that he was proud of his side’s effort, particularly given the inexperienced team the club fielded due to the representative fixtures and off-season turnover.

“That’s all we can ask for from our guys, like I think we fielded a very inexperienced side today,” he said.

“I think the young guys did a job, just at the end, three games of footy is tough on anyone, the bounce of the ball went Windsor’s way and they ended up getting the wood over us.”

Ralphs said that many of the club’s representative players did return for the Final, after the Illawarra-South Coast side’s loss to the Macarthur team 36-24 at Albion Park earlier in the day.

“There were a few of the boys who played the earlier game for the South Coast Dragons, myself included,” he said.

“I can’t help myself mate, I think that’s the kid in me, I’m getting old now, I’m 31 this year but I still just love my footy and I love playing with my mates and just doing it for Shellharbour, I couldn’t ask for a better club to be around and that’s why you do them things.”

As for the future of the Sharks Shootout tournament, Ralphs said that he believes that it is here to stay and will only grow in the future.

“The people at the club do a massive job putting it on for us and like you can see it’s a great day out at the footy,” he said.

“I’d love for there to be more teams, I’d love to have 12, 14 or even 16, have a couple of games on a Friday Night, that’s where we’re hoping to get to.

“But for now all you can do mate is put on a day of footy, but on a show for the people that turn up and hopefully it’s a good day out and you come home with the choccies, which we didn’t today.”

Earlier in the day, Nowra-Bomaderry beat the Stingrays 18-6 in the opening day, while the Sharks beat the Dapto Canaries 22-6.

The first semi final between Shellharbour and Nowra-Bomaderry was also a great game, with a strong defensive display ending in a 0-0 scoreline at full time, before the Sharks were awarded a penalty in Golden Point which they kicked for a 2-0 victory and a berth in the Final.

The other side of the draw saw Windsor’s aforementioned victories over Wentworthville and Stingrays.

The 2024 Group 7 Rugby League season will kick off in April, with the Sharks looking to avenge last year’s Grand Final loss to Gerringong, while Stingrays and Nowra-Bomaderry will attempt to further improve on last year’s top five finishes.