Sharks Winter Academy teams in the under 14’s, 15’s and 17’s age groups enjoyed solid hit outs earlier this week in matches played at Erskineville Oval and at HE Laybutt Field in Blacktown.
The Sharks Academy sent teams to play Souths at Erskineville Oval in 14’s, 15’s and 17’s, with Sharks Academy and Talent Identification Manager Glenn Brailey explaining it as an extremely worthwhile exercise as a part of the winter development program and ahead of the 2020 Junior representative seasons.
“It was a great hit out for all our teams, with good skills displayed in three very competitive trial matches,” Brailey said. “Games like these are a way of continuing our development programs and identifying the talent we have in the lead up to our junior reps for next season.”
While the respective teams took on Souths at one venue, the Sharks Academy also sent 14’s and 15’s squads to Blacktown to participate in a NSWRL gala day featuring various NRL clubs academy sides.
Despite the Sharks splitting their squads between the two venues, the boys who travelled to HE Laybutt were again competitive in their series of matches, with the 15’s playing against Illawarra, Western Suburbs and Parramatta, the 14’s taking on the North Sydney Bears, Wests Magpies and Balmain Tigers.
In completing the Sharks Winter Development program the three age groups will be in action again next week when they host the Canterbury Bulldogs at the Academy Fields at Cronulla High School next Wednesday (July 17).
Kick-off times will be 10am (game1) and 11am (game2) for the under 14’s, 12 noon for the 15’s, with the under 17’s getting underway at 1.00pm.
