First grade started off strong in poor conditions and led 18-12 come half time.

The ‘Pickers let down their guard in the second half when Junee hit the front to take the win, 30-26.

Captain-coach Luke Branighan said there were areas the boys could improve on, but, overall, he was happy with their performance. 

“There are obviously areas we need to improve on but I thought the boys tried really hard on the weekend,” he said.

“A few of us just made some bad errors that changed the game, including myself.

“I thought our defence was good for most of the game, but we just slackened off for 10 minutes here and there and that ended up costing us at the end of the day.”

According to Branighan, Matt Wakefield was the standout player on the day with his work rate in attack and defence. 

“I was also impressed with Tony Leadbitter - he did a lot of tough work coming out of trouble which helped the rest of the team - and Tui Samoa was very sharp in the first half,” he said.

At training this week Young will focus on improving their attitude and maintaining strong defence for the full 80 minutes. 

“We’re still clocking off at periods in the match and losing too many points,” Branighan said.

“We will also continue to work on our combinations in attack as we’ve only had the full squad to training for the last two to three weeks.”

Tries this week went to Matty Wakefield (1), Toey Samoa (1), Branighan (2) and Jade Cowled (1).

Conversions - Branighan (3). 

The Cherryettes were also faced with miserable conditions to line up against Junee, who were anticipated to bring a tough game. 

Junee kicked off and their defence was strong.

The Cherryettes put their plays into action and made some great ground where they were able to hold Junee for most of the first half.

Amy Braham put a kick and chase through their defensive line and was able to score. 

Unfortunately the conversion was unsuccessful, bringing the score to 4-nil. 

Going into second half Junee came out firing.

Having shuffled their positions they were able to move the Cherryettes defence around and maximise on a gap through the centre and score a try.

Junee were also unsuccessful in converting, levelling the score at 4-4. 

With 10 minutes to go the Cherryettes were able to move the ball around a lot and change a few plays but weren’t able to get over the line to gain the advantage. 

Holly Cullen and Ashlee Robinson put a together some great combinations on the left side, the final score remained locked.

Maddison Anderson had some excellent breaks and was just unlucky, and Renee Hardwick was excellent in the forwards, producing some great runs. 

Maddison Anderson took the player’s player. 

This weekend the Cherryettes take on South City.

According to player Jessica McInerney the game will be tough.

“They usually have outstanding defence and great talk as a team so, we will need to stick to what we know and play hard and just put pressure on them and hopefully we can keep it a close game,” she said. 

“The girls are fantastic this year and they just need to back themselves and stick to our plays.”

Reserve Grade went down to Junee 6-34, the Under 18s took a 34-12 win, and the Under 16s tied at 12-12 against Temora.