IT IS not much of a secret, but Hawkesbury City Rugby League Club’s A Grade team has won its fourth minor premiership in five years by being fit.
The team has a core group of players who put in the effort to train every week and keep their fitness up, and it has helped them succeed on the field for a long time.
This season the team again won the minor premiership in the Penrith Junior Rugby League A Grade 2 competition.
“A lot of teams in this comp seem to struggle to get guys to training but we seem to have a good core group of guys that turn up every week and I think that is the difference for us,” said one of two team captains Liam Pride.
The other captain, Joseph Haora, said he couldn’t count how many times the team had staged a late come from behind victory over the past two seasons thanks to fitness.
“I think we are the fittest and that is what keeps us in the games,” he said.
“We've been losing a few games by a bit at half time, we give Tony [Howe, the coach] a bit of a heart attack, but we come back at the end and win it. It is all down to fitness.”
Haora has been with the team for the past two seasons, after leaving the Windsor Wolves, and in his short stint at Hawkesbury City, it has been very successful.
He was man of the match in last year’s grand final. Haora said the award could have gone to a few players in that team, but was happy to earn the honour.
He said after joining the club, he quickly realised he would fit right in.
“I knew pretty much straight away that I had found a club with a good bunch of guys,” he said.
Apart from fitness, team camaraderie was the other pillar of the team’s success.
“We've been very successful over the last few years with a good core group of guys, and then bringing in a few people around them,” he said.
“It makes it a lot easier to give up your time and come to training and play on the weekend, when you are playing with such a good bunch of guys.”
Team coach Tony Howe said it was an easy team to run.
“I don't have to tell the boys a whole lot. They just go out there, do what they need to and do it successfully,” he said.
“I have a lot of faith in Liam and Joe to look after the team for me.”
Hawkesbury City’s under-14 division 2 team also won the minor premiership.
