In the U16s I don't know that Parra will be a "shoo in" this year. Whilst they do have a very good side and have added to it with Jamo Clark switching from West Harbour I think that size wise other teams have caught up to them in the forwards. Norths will again be the main challengers and I too have heard that Gordon are likely to be very competetive. Also hearing that Eastwood have put a pretty good side together.
Parra played Manly 16s in a trial on Sunday. Although they won by maybe 7 tries to nil, they didn't dominate our guys as much as I thought. Partly due to a number of Manly lads fronting up, but they looked a fair bit out of touch at times. They also looked to be missing a few regular players. Matt Matson who has been mentioned on these forums before wasn't really in the game at all, but I was told he had earlier had a tough game for Hills against Norths, strangely also played at Kierle Park (?). I'm also told he came off second best against Norths second row Jon Ross who was with Manly last year, which would suggest he has improved a lot and will add to the already strong Norths pack.
Jamo Clarke was playing 12, with Tepai outside him at 13, and looked pretty good, albeit against fairly weak opposition. However he appears a bit slight of frame for that position and will be interesting to see if he plays there for State Champs, and if he does how he will fare against harder hitting centre pairings at say Sydney Uni or Norths.
Malaki and Jake Roberts were notable absentees for Parra, and a couple of their forwards who were there but appeared to be out injured. One was, I think, their regular hooker Peter Ma'a.
