It was a massive day of footy on Saturday with four of our teams, Harold Matthews, SG Ball, Tarsha Gale and HNWP at Campbelltown Stadium and NSW Cup out at historic Lidcombe Oval. Our Junior Reps teams are now at the pointing end of the comps and head into the final round of the regular season this weekend. Harold Matts and SG Ball both took on strong Western Suburbs Magpies sides and our Tarsha Gale Cup rose to the occasion to secure their first win of the season, defeating the Wests Tigers 22 – 6. This team has been building every week and growing in their on-field confidence. At half time the game was incredibly close with the Bears down 4 – 6 to the Tigers, Grace-Lee Weekes having got the Bears on the board. The second half was when the girls really roared with a strong effort in defense keeping the Tigers from scoring any more points and heavily attacking with Ruby Watterson, Keturah Matoe, Caitlin Hollis and Lara George all grounding the ball over the white line. A huge team effort and a massive congrats to Head Coach Sa Patiole and his staff on a great win.

Our mighty HNWP team really flexed their muscles with a dominant win over the Wests Tigers. The final whistle blew at a whopping 50 – 4 win, nine tries and seven successful conversions – absolutely brilliant. We saw the return of International Golden Boot winner, Raecene McGregor, who has been watching from the side lines recovering from a leg injury sustained earlier this year. McGregor is a world-class on-field leader and play maker, when teamed with rugby league stars like Nita Maynard, Sarah Togatuki and Kirra Dibb, supported in the middle by an immense forward’s pack with Teuila Fotu-Moala, Jamilee Bright and Kalosipani Hopoate, and add in the speed of Jakiya Whitfeld and Rikeya Horne, just to name only a few, this team is building into a very strong side. Maintain the intensity ladies and let’s take this all the way to the top! Bears push up the ladder and continue their charge with three rounds remaining in the regular season.

Making it three wins on the trot, our KOE NSW Cup team went up against an NRL experienced stacked Western Suburbs Magpies team and walked away with the win. Although the Magpies took some early points just after kick off, it was the Bears that dominated the first half with some very consistent and solid team play. Ben Stevanovic got the Bears on the board from a pop-up offload from Ruben Porter, and Jesse Marschke converted. Bears were on the attack again, sweeping the ball to the right, Will Fakatoumafi getting a neat pass off to Toa Mata’afa who grounds the ball in the corner and gives him the first of a hattrick for the game. Ten minutes later, a very similar play saw Mata’afa go over again for his second. Only minutes later, and on the same side, Porter jogged it over and J. Marschke converted. Bears weren’t finished attacking, and with only one minute left in the half the ball again sweeps to the right, into the hands of Mata’afa and he nabs his third try of the game with Marschke converting, taking the boys to the sheds up 26 – 6.  Second half began in the Bears favour with Josh Bergamin grounding the ball just beside the posts off a good chip kick from Stevanovic, Marschke converted. Momentum seemed to shift after this point and Magpies finally found their game-play running in the next three tries. As we headed towards the final whistle, Tui Katoa receives the ball from a centre sweep and dives for the corner, taking the Bears to 36 points. Magpies make one last push and NRL star Daine Laurie busts over with a dummy ending the game with a Bears win 36 – 26. Bears push up the ladder into 4th position (equal first on points). Watch the NSWRL game highlights HERE