Cover Photo: Hayley Robertson/Junee Diesels

Tallon Smith

After three draws in four games, the Young Cherrypickers finally walked away with two competition points for their effort in a 22-12 win over the Albury Thunder at Alfred Oval on Saturday.

In a hard-fought encounter in wet conditions, the two sides each only crossed for a single try in the opening half, before the Cherrypickers ran in three more to the Thunder’s one to record a fourth victory of the season.

Young co-coach Dan Barclay said it was good to see the side finally rewarded for effort after draws against Tumut, Gundagai and Wagga Kangaroos alongside a lone win over Cootamundra in the side’s last month of football.

“We are very happy to finally get a convincing win, and all the effort from the past month coming out in that victory,” he said.

“It was a solid performance by the boys, it was a grinding first half, Albury came out ready to go and their pack really stepped up in the wet and saw them score first, but we were able to grind them away in the back end of the game, string a bit of footy together and come away with a good win at home.”

Albury opened the scoring through Blake Grounds, before Young hit back through Nick Canellis to go to the break locked at 6-all.

The Cherrypickers then scored the first two tries of the second stanza to take a 16-6 lead after 66 minutes, with Matt Noakes and Che Hyslop getting over.

In his second game back at the club following his return from Darlington Point-Coleambally in Group 20, Jon Huggett replied with a four-pointer for the Thunder in the 72nd minute to set up a grandstand finish.

However, it was to be the Pickers’ day, with Jesse Corcoran sealing the deal two minutes from full time for a 10-point victory.

A bright spot for Young in the victory was the performance of a debutant, who stepped up from under 18s to replace co-coach Jayke Hogan after he left the field for a head injury assessment.

“We had young Sam Scott sitting on the bench as our concussion sub, and gave him a crack,” he said.

“He has been killing it in under 18s, backing up for reggies, so we thought we would reward him with warming up with us and sitting on the bench as 18th man.

“But then Hoges had a bit of a head knock in the first half, he is getting assessed and he was alright, [it’s] just precautionary, which then opened the door for Sam Scott to make his debut, and in the back end of that game, he was the difference with fresh, fast legs. 

“He’s an agile back rower, and he dislodged the ball from [the] Albury attack and turned the tide, and we ended up the next set scoring through Jesse Corcoran off a scrum, so it was an exciting debut.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, Albury coach Etu Uaisele was frustrated after his side was on the wrong end of the penalty count in the defeat, but was happy with the effort the Thunder showed.

“The boys, the last couple of weeks they have put in a very good effort,” he said.

“The penalty count [was] 12-3 only in the second half.

“[In] the second half we had a sin bin as well.

“For my boys to keep turning up for each other, the way they defended and the way they played, it’s a big positive for my side.”

Young will face Wagga Brothers at Geohex Park this Saturday, while Albury will host Southcity with a +9.5 start in the Challenge Cup on Sunday.