It was an amazing feat for two teams from the Culburra Dolphins to make it to the grand finals at WIN Stadium last weekend..
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The under 15s and 16s were both undefeated throughout the season, taking out their minor premierships then both going on to become premiers in Group 7.
U15 Culburra Dolphins vs Stingrays of Shellharbour
The two top teams of this division met to challenge for the title, with Culburra already having defeated Shellharbour twice this season.
Jarrad Maynard sent Jayden Brody over early but the try was disallowed due to the referee seeing it as a forward pass. The Culburra side was full of nerves and Shellharbour capitalised not long after with the first try of the game.
Andrew Rowley saved a sure thing with some quick thinking when fielding a kick deep in the in-goal, a line dropout was the result but the Culburra side showed why they had been undefeated up until this grand final. Their defence was like a brick wall that repelled all attempts by Shellharbour to score.
At the halftime break the score was 4-0 to Shellharbour. The halftime talk was positive amongst the Culburra unit and that showed early in the second half when a set play carried out by Cameron Haydock and Kaleb Stewart saw the ‘Mouse Trap’ create a huge gap for the Culburra halfback to score under the posts.
Kaleb Stewart converted his own try and the Culburra side were now showing signs of turning the game around, leading 6-4.
Culburra now lifted into another gear, a Kaleb Stewart kick and a perfect bounce found Jayden Brody who swooped and scored under the posts untouched. Kaleb Stewart again converted.
Shellharbour threw all they had back at Culburra and scored another try to get to 8 points, but Kruize Herewini sealed their fate when breaking from a scrum and stepping his way to find Keeda Meehan backing up and sealing the victory, earning the title of Man of the Match.
The final score 16-8. That made 15 straight wins for a team of remarkable young men who never gave up at any time throughout the season.
U16 Culburra Dolphins vs Wests
The under 16s took on Wests for the fourth time this season. With grit and determination they were positive they could take them down again to show who the true Premiers were. It was a nail-biter right to the very end. Try scorers were Max Feast, Jared Jankovic and Jayden Murphy-Sebbens with all goals converted by Taylor Haydock. Man of the Match and Players Award went to a worthy recipient, Jared Jankovic. Special mention to Mitchell Karhapaa too. Awesome hit buddy!