RedOrDead
Charlie Fox (21)
Our 1st home trial is v Newington, then View, Oakhill, Auggies and finally Gregs/Puis.
Then the 1st round of the CAS begins, we play Cranbrook at home.
Thank you WLF3, knowledgable as always.
It's a real shame, that pool of trials seems to be quite weak, with Gregs/Pius being a waste of time IMO, and Riverview not being up to their usual standard most would agree. If the GPS is going to permanently move to a 10 round comp, and obviously we want to stay away from trialling against CAS schools as much as possible, this might create a real issue moving forward. There will be years when the ISA powerhouses (Oakhill and Auggies) lack talent, leaving the best CAS schools with little to no meaningful trial games to cut their teeth and be ready for the CAS season. I think you will find in the future, that getting a strong trial draw might be the difference in winning the CAS title, especially if any of the CAS powerhouses meet early in the CAS season. Say a hardened and challenged Knox, who has a strong trial draw, might meet in the first round against a Waverley team who has coasted through an easy ISA draw. That Knox team you'd think would have a massive advantage, having cut their teeth against opponents of a similar calibre.
This might mean Barker, Knox and Waverley might have to rely on QLD schools and tours to NZ (not sure if the level of Japanese schoolboy rugby is enough of a challenge, but I could be completely wrong, I'm not educated on it) to prepare for the season. This becomes more of an issue considering that the QLD schools rugby season is a month or two behind ours I believe.
I am quite possibly overthinking this.