COFFS Harbour’s best junior Oztag players are ready to take on the state’s finest in their own backyard.

The Coffs Harbour Cavaliers junior representative teams are set to take part in next week’s 2021 NSW Junior State Cup to be held in Coffs Harbour.

The State Cup will feature teams ranging from under 12’s to under 17’s, held over a massive four days of top class representative Oztag from Thursday, 11 February to Sunday, 14 February at the C.ex Coffs International Stadium and surrounding fields.

The Coffs Harbour Cavaliers will proudly represent their region at home as they take on other regions from across NSW.

Coffs Harbour are entering eight teams in this year’s NSW Junior State Championships, and will be well represented in most of the divisions including the 12’s,13’s,14’s,16’s, and 17’s girls’ competitions, and the 13’s, 15’s and 17’s boys.

Coffs Junior Oztag co-ordinator Mel Cowgill said Coffs Harbour teams were a growing presence at the State Cup.

“Our kids are extremely excited and proud to be competing in the State Cup,” she said.

“Since the State Cup moved here in 2017, we have steadily grown our teams starting with two and each year now we have between 8 and 10 entered.”

Cowgill said preparations were in full swing for one of the biggest junior Oztag events in Australia.

“We all started training prior to the school holidays and it has been hard having a break and getting back into it,” she said.

“But everyone is back on board training 2 to 3 times a week at the moment,

“We have also organised games between our teams for extra training.”

The most critical change for this year’s NSW Junior State Cup is the maximum gathering capacity increased from 500 to 3000 persons in one area – providing it is large enough to still adhere to the one person per two square metre rule.

Another big change is that the structure of the tournament will be different to past years to comply with current COVID-19 restrictions.

Divisions will play over two days with each day split into two sessions, with the tournament segregated into five zones.

The NSW Junior State Cup gets underway this Thursday.

 

By Aiden BURGESS