The Far West Academy of Sport rugby league squad completed its final squad activity for the 2002/03 program with a tour to Sydney from July 9 to 12.
The squad's tour consisted of: games against two NRL development squads; elite coaching services provided by the NSW Institute of Sport and the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation; tours of the Sydney Cricket Ground, Aussie Stadium and Parramatta Stadium; and training sessions with the NSWRL Academy and the South Sydney Rabbitohs first grade squad.
The squad began the week with a first up game against Western Suburbs Magpies U/16 development squad.
The team played well throughout the game however narrowly lost 28-18 in the lost few minutes of the game.
Cobar's Javed Colling was named man of the match.
Also coming from the game was the selection of Menindee's Joel Rolten and Lighting Ridge's Nicholas Gibbs in the NSW U/16 Aboriginal rugby league team who will play the Queensland U/16 Aboriginal team as the curtain raiser to the upcoming Australia versus New Zealand test match.
During the break between the games of the tour the team had a few rest days where the squad visited the NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS), Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation, NSWRL Academy, a number of Sydney sporting facilities and a NRL team training session.
At NSWIS the squad had two sessions with the resident sports psychologists who gave the squad an idea of what it takes to become an elite athlete and what elite athletes do to prepare themselves for the big events.
Col Wright, the Far West Academy coach, was very impressed with the services offered by the NSWIS sports psychologist and is keen to have more involvement from them for future squad programs.
On the final rest day the squad was also lucky enough to attend a Rabbitohs' training session where the squad watched a first grade NRL team in training and met the team following the session where many of the boys got autographs and chatted at lengths with the Rabbitohs' players.
Many of the Rabbitohs players were amazed at the distance the squad had travelled to attend the tour.
The squad also attended a sports science testing session at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation to identify physical areas they need to improve in and Steve Hewson from the NSWRL Academy worked with the squad to help improve their basic passing skills.
The squad finished the tour with two games against the Parramatta U/16 development squad
In the first game the side held the opposition to within eight points until the last 10 minutes when the Parramatta team finished too strong with the Far West Academy losing a tough match.
In the second game the far west squad started very strongly and went to the half time break in front, however, a much fitter and experienced Parramatta team scored a few too many tries late in the game for the academy to catch up.
Gilgandra's Ainsley Coxhedge and Nyngan's Byron Warren were standouts for the Far West Academy.
The Far West Academy of Sport would like to thank coach Col Wright, manager Mick Barlow and trainer Ross Coxhedge for the time they have given to the Far West Academy of Sport rugby league squad during the length of the program and particularly the residentials where they spent a great deal of their personal time to organise and keep the squads' activities running smoothly.
Any young rugby league players interested in becoming a member of the 2003/04 program should keep watch for notices of the next trials in early October.
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