By Peter (Parra) Montgomery
The followers of the Albury Thunder First Grade Rugby League team, will finally have the opportunity to see the team in action – at home – for the first time this season.
The Club will be in action at Greenfield Park on Saturday May 3rd, taking on Wagga Brothers in four grades in Round 3 of the 2025 Group 9, Great Northern Premiership.
The Club has been in training since before Christmas, and covered more ground than the Leyland Brothers with trips to Leeton and Griffith for pre-season trials and to Tumut and Young for the first two rounds of the competition.
Welcome to the travelling Brothers Club for this week’s round of matches. Enjoy the day of football, and best wishes for injury free games.
The Thunder First Grade started the 2025 with a draw with a rejuvenated Tumut Blues at Twickenham Oval Tumut, a game which went right down to the wire.
Realistically, it was a game the Thunder should have won.
A few tries were left on the paddock, and a couple of easy goals were missed. Good to get the long trip against Tumut out of the way – and early in the season.
The Blues team has ‘re-built’ after missing the finals in 2024 – the year as defending Premiers.
Young Cherrypickers last week were too good on the day, and followed up its 54-6 first round win over Brothers, with a crushing 44-10 win over the Thunder.
The Pickers have a side stacked with experienced and big players, and a crafty half-back in Tom Demeio who was the ‘director’ of the Premiers attack.
The Pickers have a side littered with players with NSW Cup experience, and have picked up a 127kg giant from Canterbury Bulldogs in Isaac Matalavea-Booth, who has previously played with Gold Coast Titans.
Thunder lost two of its biggest and best forwards – Faone Fakatava and Nathan Darby with injury during the match.
Hopefully, both will be fully recovered for today’s games.
Thunder fans will get to see ‘new boys’ Vili Cerei, Osika (Oscar) Kaufononga, Faone Fakatava in action, as well as big Reece Clegg who has returned this season after a few years away.
The Thunder Reserve Grade team has started the season in fine fashion with coach Andrew Smith, captain Aiden Young and half-back Sam Lulia in great form.
Bailey Muras has provided plenty of go-forward, first as a hooker against Tumut, and as a centre against Young Cherrypickers.
The youngsters in the Club ranks have grabbed their opportunities with both hands – and there is some good talent in the Under 18s and reserves to keep an eye on.
Joe Hill and Joel Vincent Marriott, who had a taste of first grade last season have performed very well in the Reserves this season, and now we can add Eric Tui, who came on in the second half of the twos last week, as a player who is going to create plenty of headlines in 2025.
Eric showed plenty of gusto in attack and looked to be enjoying his time in the higher grade.
Noah Stead is another who has caught the eye while Jordan Ercegovic and Riley Ivanku have benefitted from the representative matches in the pre-season.
Keep an eye out for prop Robert Kelson who is in his second year in League after making the switch from the Steamers in 2024.
The League Tag girls have a tough match coming up against leaders, Brothers,which has two big wins in the opening round.
The Callaghan girls, Tayla and Lily are in good form.
Other Group 9 rivalry round action this weekend sees the Kangaroos take on South City in a Wagga Wagga derby, Tumut face Gundagai, Young take on Cootamundra, and Junee defend the Challenge Cup with +9.5 start to home against Temora.
Battlers For Bush Footy 