Two Kempsey Cannonballs teams to feature in under-12s rugby union grand final

After a successful season, Kempsey Black and Kempsey Gold each landed a spot in the grand final to be played in Port Macquarie on Friday, July 28.

Kempsey Black, coached by Jesse Ball, finished first in the rugby union under-12s competition, while Kempsey Gold, coached by Jared Fuller and Jake Gelfius, finished second.

"The kids have played really well this year," Fuller said. "In the finals series, whoever finished first and second goes straight through to the grand final.

"We were lucky that both teams played well throughout the year and here we are."

Ball said the club had to split the under-12s players into two teams at the start of the year due to the high playing numbers.

"The amount of players coming through the junior pathways is really strong at the moment," he said. "We had too many numbers to just have one team, so we had to split them into two teams.

"The club's in good hands with the coaches from the under-8s right through to the senior sides.

"There's a good culture at the club at the moment, and it's good to see that the kids reap the benefits of it all."

Fuller said he's can't remember a time when the club had two teams in the same age division meet in the grand final.

"This is the first time that I know of where we've had two teams from the same club in an age group play in the grand final," he said.

Fuller said he's proud of the growing interest in local rugby union and the culture of the Kempsey Cannonballs Club.

"We've been slowly building our junior numbers year after year, and we pride ourselves on being a family oriented club.

"We appreciate the fact that parents get their kids to training every Tuesday and drive them to Port Macquarie every Friday night to play."

Fuller said the juniors are enjoying the local rivalry between the teams after calling the grand final match-up a "win-win".

"It's going to be exciting, the boys are pretty keen," he said. "There's a bit of local rivalry with the teams... each team's talking about who's going to win.

"At the end of the day, they're all friends and they will all go into one team eventually.

"As long as they have fun and keep in good spirits, that's the main thing."

Kempsey local Brodie Hawken has been given the honours to referee the game. The 15-year-old is an up-and-coming referee in the Mid North Coast competition.

Meanwhile, the under-10s will play in the third v fourth finals game against Wauchope Thunder. The under-8s have finished off their regular season with no finals being played.

Ball said under-10's coach Tommy Justice has done an amazing job coaching the side this year as he thanked all the coaches involved in the club.

"A special mention needs to be given to the Under-10s coach Tommy Justice," he said. "Tommy is one of our imported players this year coming over from England.

"At the start of the season, the under-10s didn't have a coach and Tommy had given up his time through the week for training and Friday nights where he has no affiliation with the kids, he's just put his hand up and helped the club out and we are thankful for this."

The Under-12s grand final is scheduled to kick off at 6.40pm at Stuart Park, Port Macquarie. The under-10's game will kick off at 5.40pm.

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