By Tania Phillips
They are the country-club that could and the Warwick Cowboys are now just one game from capping of one of their biggest Toowoomba Rugby League seasons ever with a possible premiership.
The club’s reserve grade are due to take on the Valley’s Roosters at Clive Berghofer Stadium on Saturday afternoon at 4.30pm as they try and add the major title to their minor premiership. The side has lost just one game all year and will go into the final as favourites.
The Cowboys came within a whisker of having two teams in the finals with their young A grade, undefeated until very late in the season, going down in the preliminary final at the weekend to the strong Gatton Club.
On Friday night in Toowoomba at the TRL presentation night the club took home a slew of awards including Coach of the Year and three players in the team of the year, reserve grade minor premiership, TRL Reserve Grade point scorer of the year and representative player of the year.
Not bad for a country club up against club’s with bigger budgets and playing rosters.
Club president Dayne Barrett said it had been really successful season.
“Yeah it’s been good,” he said.
“We had a few representative players this year and we had the representative player of the year which is great for Joseph Vite,” he said.
“We have two in the Queensland country side and our coach Col Speed is the coach which is also good for the club.
“We are pretty happy though we are a little disappointed that our A grade captain Mitch Wilson was right up there in the A grade player of the year points until the last round you can see and then he didn’t even make the team of the year which was a bit disappointing. He was very consistent through the year. And then he had a virus for the last game not too many others would have even tried to take the field but he got out there and did his best.”
He said missing out on the A grade grand final was also a disappointment after the side had looked so good all season.
“They had a disappointing start to the game – made too many errors and Gatton were good and capitalised on them,” Barrett said.
“We gave them too many cheap tries in the first half.”
He said starting slowly had been a consistent problem for the A grade team throughout the year and something for the players and club to reflect on and try to find a way of improving it.
“But it was still a great season, we were up on the top of the tables for a long time and undefeated, sadly we didn’t finish the season,” the president said.
“Consistency was knocked a way a bit so we have a few things to answer there.”
However while the A grade stumbled at the last hurdle it’s the reserve grade side that has powered on.
“We’ve been lucky we have a good mix of older players and younger players – the dedication has been there all year around,” he said.
“Sammy (coach Sam Williamson) has had them together and they’ve trained against the A grade boys and are with and about Col and the players as well. They’ve trained together as a core group all year. They’ve been good all year, they take each game on it’s merits, they don’t go in with any expectations. Hopefully they can do that again this weekend.
“We’re confident enough in their ability but its just on the day they have to turn up and show their ability. They have to stick their guns and stay in the grind what ever happens. They have to keep going.
“They are up against Valley’s – they are the benchmark in the competition we have just got to match it.
“They have a few players that have come back – they have players that have come back into the A grade from the Western Clydesdales which then pushes blokes back into that reggies side.
“We just have to be up for them and compete with them.
“It’s been a really good season, you always hope for it. You hope with the effort they put in. There’s no less effort put in every year but I think these boys have just gelled together and worked really well together and we were lucky enough to have those older heads in reserve grade and we had a good mix in A grade so we had competitive across both grades which is something you need in a footy club to be up there at the end of the year. You have to have players competing for spots and that’s pretty much how we were all year.
“We are nowhere near the budget of some of the other clubs but we do our best and we’re trying to keep improving over the next few years and work on our development, work with the juniors. “That’s our aim, trying to keep it as local as we can and where we can try and bring players in to help develop.
“They are getting younger and younger where other clubs in Toowoomba are offering them the world to get them to go down there and get an opportunity to go on and play (at a higher level).”
He said it was all about making sure that both the local coaches and players were getting the right coaching to help them progress to a level that they are “playing on the big screen”.
The plan is to hopefully produce players that could one day play NRL.
“All the ability is there we’ve just got to nurture it more,” Barrett said.
The club has had a few junior academy day this year already and are hoping to run another later in the year and a few more next year.
“We’re looking at doing some coach development nights as well,” he said.
