At a club with a proud leaguetag record, there's a new generation of potential Wagga Brothers stars hitting the field this winter.
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The girls in Brothers' Under 8s leaguetag team don't have time to think about the future though. They're having way too much fun now.
"A couple are having their second year but for most of them it's their first year and they love it," team manager Rebecca Matthews said.
"They just love running around on the weekend and we've got two really good coaches (Mark Calverley and Harry Fitzgibbon) who are teaching them new skills and keeping them active which is great especially at this time. They just love it."
Matthews' daughter Layla has taken to the sport after some experience playing touch football.
"It's to the point where you try and get them off the field and they're not keen to come off. And the numbers are good in our team - we've got 16 so we're full to the brim - and some of the other teams have good numbers as well."
Scores don't matter of course in the eight-a-side introduction level. The only result that counts is having fun and against Junee last Saturday the smiles on the girls' faces suggested they were winning on that score.
The coaches say Maggie Crowe and Savannah Jeans have been providing plenty of spark in attack as two older members of the team while among the young guns, Zalyah Williams and Hallie Roy have been tenacious in defence.
Brothers play Cootamundra this week and when word got out the Bulldogs might be keen on an extra game, there was no worries selling it to the girls.
"I put it out to the parents and all the kids are champing at the bit, so we'll play them twice on Saturday. They'll get double time. So they're having a great time with it," Calverley said.
He and co-coach Harry Fitzgibbon were also brought to the sport by their daughters, Josephine and Bridget.
"The skills are good... we just introduce something a little bit different each week but the main thing we try to do at training is spend a lot of time playing games. If we can introduce some skills along the way then even better," Calverley said.
"So their skills are getting better, they're getting better at defending and working out what it looks like to defend in some sort of structure. And similarly in attack, where they're working out how to find the space."
At that moment, Josephine pipes up from beside her dad: "Harry says to run at the spaces not the faces."
Earlier, on the way to training, she had already told Calverley, 'I wish we had leaguetag everyday.'
It's music to the ears of Brothers Juniors president, Ben Howard. The club's senior leaguetag side set a pointscoring record on the weekend, and five years were in the headlines for an unbelievable 74-game winning streak.
"Our senior side's been successful for a while now and we need that next generation to come up so that's important," Howard said.
"And for a long time, junior rugby league was all about boys playing. Some girls were playing rugby league but now it enables brothers and sisters and the whole family to be part of the sport.
"Without a doubt, it's a massive part of the club."
Brothers have leaguetag teams in each age group, the 8s, 10s, 12s, 14s and 16s, as well as boys teams in each junior grade.
Calverley and Matthews say they've been very impressed with the club in their short time involved, and thankful a season was able to get up and running after the hard work of many across all junior clubs.
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