A joint venture for group 19, group four and group 21, families travelled from Inverell, Glen Innes, Armidale, Tamworth, Muswellbrook and Scone for the under 12-13 years event. 

Moree Junior Rugby League president Paul Raveneau said the five local players “did their town proud”. 

“It is purely for development,” group 19 president Jeanette Hillier said.

“The kids were really excited, and certainly from group 19’s perspective, the children that were involved, I could see a huge difference from the beginning to the end of the season,” she said.

She said the local boys were keen to put into practice the new skills they had learned. Hillier was pleased to see injured players come along to cheer their team mates on.  

“We were lucky this year with the quality of coaches we had,” Hillier said.

“We had lots of experience in our coaches. Both the 12s and 13s coaches have played rugby league for 25 years.”

Hillier said she couldn’t pinpoint any stand out players, and that everyone performed to the best of their ability. 

“There were players there that came on in leaps and bounds over the last eight-10 weeks of the program,” she said. 

Country Rugby League representative Craig McLeod and NRL development officer Luke Taylor were there on the day to watch for potential in the region and get to know the players. 

Hillier thanked local parents for their commitment.