Amazing to think that only 9 of the players in the 1sts and 2nds are in year 12. 21 back from firsts and seconds next year plus their strong 16’s/15’s cohort- a good rebuilding year for Waverley no doubt. Also speaking with people today- even most of their thirds are in year 11- so they will have significant depth next year.
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I accidentally deleted my post sorry- I am getting old! Will try again.
I have to agree- Waverley were hit hard by serious injuries to a large number of first XV starting players this year - but they will Be better off for blooding a huge amount of players and having a large returning group of firsts XV/2nd XV and 16 a players next year.
They ended up missing the following 1st XV starting players in various CAS games due to various issues:
Fretton, LHW, Baker, Milford, Moretti, Elmes, Ferguson, Daley, Amestro, Aholelei all first XV starters.
As a result they blooded a lot of players in the firsts and have a huge number returning genuine starters from the firsts including:
Sullivan, Amastero, Aholelei, Moale, King, Fritz, Thorn, Di Bartolo, Swann, Volkman, Fretton, Baker.
Then have a strong group of 16’s coming through. Not mentioning that there are at least 13 players returning from the seconds next year.
People expect Waverley to win every year, but if you look at the context of them in 2019- it was fair to expect them to be competitive when they lost to a full strength joeys by 2, but they lost a large chunk of that team and had to blood younger players as a result.
People kicking them when they are down have forgotten they were one penalty goal away from winning 3 years in a row last year. And every school needs a year like this one every now and then to prepare for the future(just look at Barker in 2016/17).