Western Reds impress at Country Championships League in ‘huge step up’

Orange was represented in three Western Reds teams which qualified for the tournament, with Sam Harvey in the under-14 girls, Charlie Kemp and Jayden Baker in the under-16 boys and Clary Annis-Brown and Charlie Crisp in the under 18 boys. 

While an under-16s Western Reds team also went away, no Orange players lined up in the side as the Orange Eagles under 16 side played stand-alone at the tournament. 

Harvey’s under 14s were the only side to rack up a win over the weekend, which is the first of two rounds of the CCL, but their two wins came in style with a 64-50 win over Gosford City and a 64-51 victory over Moss Vale. 

It could have easily been four wins from four games, however, with the side’s other two matches ending in nail-biting three-point and one-point losses. 

Orange Eagles junior coordinator Craig Harvey said the side played “fantastic” basketball to be placed fourth with three games to go in round two. 

“We were up most of the Newcastle game where we lost by one and just lost it in the dying minutes,” he said.

He said it was a huge flip from last time the Reds played Newcastle, where Harvey said the result “was a bit of a blowout”, and the three point loss to Taree was magnitudes better than the 30-point deficit Western faced last start against the Tornadoes. 

“A lot of these sides are training three or four times a week and have a bigger budget, more high-level coaches – our girls are from Narrandera, Griffith, West Wyalong as well as Orange and Bathurst, we’ve had two training sessions total,” Harvey said. 

“It’s been really good to see us be able to compete at the top level.”

While the other Western Reds sides with Orange representation weren’t able to enter the winners books from the weekend’s games, Harvey said the sides still did very well against quality opposition, the the stand-alone Orange Eagles side “very happy” with their results. 

“It’s a massive step up and a huge learning curve… all the Western Reds side and the Orange Eagles side can return to the Western Junior Series and play against other teams from Bathurst and Lithgow and Dubbo who also travelled and it will be great for the local level,” he said. 

The second and final round of the CCL is on the July 21-22, with finals to come in August in Minto for sides who finish in the top four.