Rugby league’s future stars gathered in Helensburgh for the Spud Comans Knockout on Sunday, August 6.
Gymea Gorillas Blue 1 Gold side won the annual gala day for under-8s, defeating Aquinas Colts by six tries to four. The final whistle was met with enormous excitement – and a water bottle shower – by Gymea, who last claimed the Spud Shield in 2009.
For 25 years, Helensburgh Junior Rugby League Club has hosted the competition as a fun end to the season. Sunday’s knockout was as popular as ever, attracting 22 teams and more than 260 young players from the Illawarra, Sutherland Shire and Shoalhaven.
“It's our biggest fundraiser of the year every year,” Helensburgh JRLFC sponsorship coordinator Lauren Aitken said. “And it's just basically about getting all the kids together and having a competition.
“With the young ones, with the under-8s, they actually aren't playing for competition points throughout the season, so it's something that stands out a bit for kids of that age because they don't have that finals footy that all the other older kids get.”
Corrimal Cougars took home the Junior Tiger Plate, awarded to the top-ranking team just pipped of a spot in the quarterfinals, while the Helensburgh Tigers home side, whose club celebrates 50 years this year, placed fourth overall.
While competition is an important part of the knockout, Lauren said the cornerstone has always been about bonding with your opposition as well as your teammates and providing a fun closer to the junior season.
“For me, I think that having fun is the most important thing when it comes to playing a team sport; that they have a good experience, that they get to learn from being out there,” she said.
“Usually the games go so fast on the weekend, and they look forward to it all week and it's sort of done and dusted within 45 minutes, but they [looked] forward to hanging around all day together as a group and watching other teams their age play.
“For some of the kids we've got, it's their first ever year of rugby league and it's been so good to see them come from having no rugby league skills at all – because they've either not played a team sport before, or they've come from another code – [and] just watching them showcase their new skills that they've got and just having fun.”
The Spud Comans Knockout is named after a volunteer who helped with groundskeeping, Lauren said.
“His name was Lionel [‘Spud’] Comans, and he had dedicated a lot of his time to the club without even having children that were playing at the club – he had daughters that didn't play rugby league – so they dedicated the cup to him because of all his hard work volunteering as the groundskeeper.”
