A mid-year period in which they snagged five wins from six outings was not enough to propel Aaron Hertsch’s Dragons to the finals of this year’s Jersey Flegg Cup season, but the rookie head coach was pleased with the grit and progression that his players exhibited across the year.
A raft of injuries and squad call-ups ultimately cruelled the under-21s side who were sitting just 24 for-and-against points out of the top five with five rounds remaining before ending the year on a losing streak.
In his first year at the helm, Hertsch maintains that there were a number of positives to draw from the season despite falling short of the postseason.
“A positive was that we debuted a lot of kids out of SG Ball, we debuted a kid out of Harold Matts as well,” Hertsch said.
“It was just pleasing to see the progression of the players. They were all willing to work really hard and hopefully next year we can go a little bit better and play finals and get results as well as development.
"We had a pretty young squad towards the back end of the year which caused us to drop a little bit lower than we expected but that’s going to lead us into next year quite strong.”
A club-wide injury bug towards the backend of the year saw a number of the side’s regulars either unavailable or earning promotions to Knock On Effect NSW Cup level.
“By the end of the year, we had 13 unavailable and I think we had about six or seven playing Cup, so it was essentially 20 out of my squad that were unavailable,” he said.
“I think we had 41 in the squad, and we played all of them. Everyone got a run.”
Although the promotion of players up a grade made for a trickier situation at Jersey Flegg level, Hertsch understands the bigger picture and importance of development at this stage of the players’ careers.
“Overall, I think we would have had about at least 13 debut from Flegg into Cup and they all held their own as well," he said.
"If you look at it that way, it was a great result. Obviously, with those kids coming through, the more experience they get, the better they’ll be and hopefully push into first grade.
"If you’ve got competition there through the spots and through the whole grade, it makes the whole club stronger."
“I was surprised how many went up but, again, I think that was due to a lot of injuries… NRL losing players out of the squad plus injuries brought the Cup players up and, in turn, brought our players up, which is great, you know, they got good experience and good exposure and that’s only going to make them stronger and better players.”
The side’s finals charge hit its apex in July with a win over the Storm in Corrimal capping off a period in which they notched five wins from six matches.
“We were flying. That was pretty much a couple weeks after the guys from SG Ball integrated with us. It took us a few weeks to get them on board with what we were trying to do and achieve but, once everyone was on board, we figured out our best team which resulted in those good results,” he said.
“We went to Canberra and beat Canberra, went to Melbourne and beat Melbourne, quick turnaround to beat the Sharks in Cronulla and then we beat the Panthers at home as well.
"We sort of started our run from there but then obviously we hit those injuries and I think we needed to win two of the last four and we ended up losing all four. I think we had a lot of young kids in there that probably were a little bit earlier than I expected.
"Obviously, we came up against some pretty quality teams that dropped their players back as well, so you could tell the difference between 19-year-olds and 21-year-olds.”
Ben Johnson, who made his Knock On Effect NSW Cup debut in Round 9 before making two more appearances later in the year, took home the side’s Player of the Year Award but was not the only one who caught the coach’s eye throughout the season.
“I thought that Campbell Watchirs had a good year. He was pretty solid most of the year. We worked on a fair bit of his game. He started the year in the back row and then I moved him back into the centres,” Hertsch said.
“(Fullback or winger) Ben Rumble had a pretty decent year as well. I thought he progressed quite well. He’s got a little bit to work on still, but he’s got a lot of skill.
"(Back-rower) Phoenix Vetenibua-Finnerty, he had a really strong year. He was like a set-and-forget type player. He just competed on everything and that’s what I needed – players competing with each other and just not giving up and he sort of epitomised that.”
2024 beckons as a year of promise for Hertsch and his under-21s squad who will be eager to recapture the midseason form that boosted them towards the cusp of the finals picture.
“I think there’s probably about 12 boys coming back, so there’s a fair few still there which is really positive. There’s a lot of kids doing NRL preseason as well straight out of SG Ball,” he said.
“There’s a lot of things that I learnt. This was my first year in an elite pathways system, which I was really excited about. There was a lot of challenges during the year, I’m not going to lie, but we got through those challenges and, obviously, that’s going to make me a better coach moving forward.
"Moving into next year, there’s a few things that I want to change and be better at. You’ve just got to be honest with yourself at the end of the year, but we definitely grew and definitely learnt.”
