Group 11 league tag defeated Group 10 32-26

Coached by Kimmy Gordon, Group 11 dominated early at Blayney's King George Oval against Group 10 before the latter fought their way back into the match with the final score finishing 32-26.

Doubles to Maddi Drew and Courtney Hodge led the way for Group 11, but for Gordon, she was just happy to watch her side come away winners.

"It was excellent, especially for my first time as Group 11 coach," she said.

"All of the young girls stepped up and we had a lot of them, having the older girls around them settled things down.

"We panicked in spots but with the older girls guiding us on there it was good.

"It was great to see both teams just slogging it out."

Saturday marks the second time in as many years Group 11 has beaten their biggest rivals, after doing so at Parkes in 2022.

Just 12 months ago, Gordon was leading the Group 11 side around Pioneer Park against Group 10, a side she knows very well.

"We know what Group 10 are capable of, they can pull something out of nothing," she said.

"Full credit has to go to all the girls across my team with their defence, they were getting off the line.

"It was a close game all round, both teams stayed in the grind and it was a really fast match."

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In the opening half of the match, Group 11 were impressive, racing out to a 20-12 lead before extending their advantage to 32-16.

A pair of late tries to Group 10 made the end of the match quite entertaining but the experienced heads in Gordon's side held their nerve.

Against a Group 10 side which has largely been together for some time now, Gordon believes the gap between the two divisions is starting to close.

"Mish Somers has been around the traps for a while," she said.

"A lot of those girls have been around for as long as I can remember, whereas we had a lot of younger girls.

"Group 10 have a bit of a set spine each year, for our girls to pull off what they did inside 24 hours after one training session against a side like that was impressive.

"They've held the title for so many years and now we've won two in a row against them. Now that we've merged, I think everyone is starting to see that Group 11 are beginning to match it was the other tag sides."

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