History will be made this Saturday when the Nepean Ducks play in their first ever Championship game.
Nepean’s U19 Colts team qualified for tomorrow morning’s Kookaburra Bowl at Campbelltown Stadium after defeating the Sutherland Seahawks 26-8 in last weekend’s semi-final.
The young Ducks, who finished second after the regular season, will battle the number one seeded UTS Gators when play gets underway at 11am.
The Gators will be aiming for back-to-back titles, while the Ducks will be gunning for their first championship since coming into the league back in 2016.
“The boys started their journeys in 2016 and this will be the first time they’ve made it to the Championship game,” said Nepean Ducks President, Darren White.
“Our Colts team have been together for a fair few years. Our quarterback, Lachlan Bignall, started with us in 2016 and has been our quarterback since he was 15-years-old.
“Lachie’s now 18, he played for his state this year and now he’s leading this team to a Championship game.”
2019 has been a year to remember for Penrith’s local American Football club after they had all three teams contest the Gridiron NSW playoffs for the very time.
Nepean’s men’s team qualified for their inaugural playoff campaign, while the club’s women’s team fell one game short of making this weekend’s Opal Bowl decider.
“It’s been a really successful season for us as a whole,” White said.
“Before the season we had hoped to have all three teams make the playoffs but we couldn’t have too lofty expectations especially when you’ve got a new team starting from scratch like our women’s side was.”
The club’s Colts team will go into tomorrow’s all-important clash against the Gators slight outsiders after UTS beat them during the regular season.
However, the Ducks are in top form and are already playing like a team of champions.
“It’s shaping up to be a cracking game, we have no injuries and everyone is fighting fit,” White said.
“We’ve got a really good group of guys that have been together for a few years now and we’ve been building towards this for a while. It’s pretty cool seeing it all come off.”
If you can’t make this Saturday’s Kookaburra Bowl at Campbelltown Stadium, you can catch the match via a livestream on the Nepean Ducks Facebook page.
Nathan Taylor is the Weekender’s Deputy Editor and Senior Sports Writer. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked at the Weekender for a decade.
