“Divided loyalties” for Josh when Western met Riverina!
JOSH CALE grew up in Narromine, led the Jets to an Under-18s Group XI premiership, and played in a first grade grand final with his home club before launching a career in Sydney and then with Albury Thunder in the Group 9 competition.
On Saturday, Jack was back in familiar territory, casting his welltrained eye over some of the best Under-16, 18 and 23-year-old players in Country Rugby League.
“I grew up in the town that produced bush legend Bob Weir, the Smith brothers, Country captain Patrick and Mark and David Gillespie. His nickname, “Cement”, tells just how tough the Narromine boys are,” Josh said.
“So it’s only natural my heart is with Western, however some of my personal best moments have come in senior league at Albury and with the Riverina teams, so I guess I have a boot in both camps,” he laughed.
In fact, Josh took the Thunder to a hat-trick of premierships and six successive finals series before being handed the reins of the NSW Country team last year.
Josh might well have had his “green shorts” underneath his CRL outfit at Spooner Oval yesterday because it was a clean sweep for the Western boys over his new “mob”, the Bidgee Bulls!
The Rams clean-slated the Bulls 52-0 in the Andrew Johns’ Shield Under-16s round two; the Under-18s fought back from a 10-nil deficit just before half time to win their Laurie Daley Shield match 24-22, then the Under-23s put 38 points on the Bulls in a literally ‘red hot’ display.
Josh Cale thinks the competitions bearing the names of league