By Marcus Uhe
Excitement is building at the Casey Warriors Rugby League Club as its juniors prepare to rub shoulders with their Melbourne Storm heroes this week.
The Warriors’ under 8 and 9 players will face off against the Doveton Steelers in a mini-match at half time of the Storm’s NRL clash with Cronulla at AAMI Park on Sunday 11 June, as part of the league’s Community Round.
Among the juniors’ favourite players in purple include Cameron Munster, Harry Grant and Nelson Asofa-Solomona.
“For a lot of them it will be their first time playing at AAMI Park,” Arana Taepa, Warriors’ vice president said.
“They form a line at half time so when the players come back out onto the field, the (Warriors) players form a barrier so the players run between them.”
The Warriors are one club to have benefited from the Storm’s investment in grassroots rugby league, and the relationship between the club and the City of Casey, who signed a five-year partnership agreement with the Australian sporting powerhouse back in February.
The Storm have played trial matches at Casey Fields in recent seasons, while their junior representative team and Jersey Flegg under-21s will play three fixtures there over June and July.
“We’re really lucky, they send a bunch of guys out within Victoria and they jump in amongst the training sessions with the kids, meet all the parents and kids for a good two hours,” Taepa said.
“They’ve really invested in the grass roots.
“They work hard on the outside, they’re not after accolades or anything, they do a lot of their work silently.”
Should they earn selection for the Storm that week, Warriors alumni Sheldon Diaz and Jared Nauma will be two players the kids will form a guard of honour for on Sunday, as members of the Storm Academy program.
For the Warriors, a club celebrating its tenth year of existence, it will be a terrific way to celebrate reaching double figures.
The match will be broadcast on Fox Rugby, beginning at 4.05pm on Sunday 11 June.
