Just 72 hours after debuting in South Sydney’s Toyota Cup victory over St George Illawarra, Dylan Walker has led Matraville Sports High to a 60-0 victory against Hunter Sports High at Townsend Oval in Newcastle on Wednesday.
Scoring a try, having a hand in three others and kicking eight goals, Walker says it was important to lead by example following his first match at WIN Jubilee Oval on the weekend.
“It was a great experience, I enjoyed it heaps and it was one of the greatest moments of my life [playing on Sunday],” said Walker.
“I had to bring back what I learned up there and I learnt a lot up there actually.
“I’ve been playing in this competition [GIO Schoolboys Cup] for the last three years so I did have a role to play as a mentor, the captain and the leader out there.”
Matraville Sports High coach Scott Murray accepted post game that Walker is pivotal to his side’s chances of going one better than last year’s grand final defeat to Hills Sports High.
“He’s [Walker] been in the squad for three years now and had his 20’s debut on the weekend so he’s an important part of the team,” said Murray.
“He knows what’s required at this level and there’s a number of players who played SG Ball with Dylan so they’ve got combinations.”
Matraville Sports High led 18 nil at half time on the back of tries from Smith, Tawamcala and Walker, but an avalanche of points in the second half followed with a tired Hunter Sports High team having to make plenty of tackles.
The Newcastle based school was without young guns Sione Mata’utia and Tevita Pangai who were down in Melbourne as part of the NSW Under 16’s squad which is playing Queensland in a curtain raiser to the State of Origin.
Matraville came up the day before the game on Wednesday, and coach Murray said it was to install in the players a sense of how important this competition is.
“We came up yesterday - I wanted them to feel that this important so we stayed up here last night.
“It was disappointing in the end what happened last year but this is a new team and they’ve been watching what has been going on for the last few years and they’ve aspired to play in the opens team.
“We’d like to go all the way for sure.”
Matraville Sports High 60 (Smith 2 tries, Fullick 2 tries, Tawamcala, Walker, W Lolo, G Lolo, Garvey tries; Walker 8/8 goals, Moceidreke 2/2 goals) defeated Hunter Sports High 0
