At Lidcombe Oval on Saturday, March 9, proud clubs Western Suburbs and Balmain will continue their fierce rivalry
while the Kaiviti Silktails will make history of their own.
The Silktails are making their debut in the Jersey Flegg Cup (Under 21s), having competed in the Leagues Clubs
Australia Ron Massey Cup for the previous four seasons. In 2024, there will be 14 teams participating in the
competition when the Warriors join the Silktails.
The Wests Tigers will take against the Silktails in the opening round. The NSWRL TV app, which can be downloaded
from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store (iOS, TVOS), will provide live streaming of the game beginning at
2:00 pm.
Three route games between the Western Suburbs Magpies and the Balmain Tigers will showcase the up-and-coming
talent among the ranks of the black, white, and gold before the Jersey Flegg Cup match:
Development (Under 16s) at 9:30 a.m.
11:00 a.m.: Under-17 UNE Harold Matthews Cup
UNE SG Ball Cup for Under-19s, 12:30 p.m.
Wests Tigers Pathways and Junior Recruitment Manager Shannon Gallant announced that the club has asked a few
of its NRL and NRLW players to attend the event on Saturday. (Captain Alex Isdale of Harold Matthews is shown
above.)
“Wests Tigers members and fans have a fantastic opportunity to attend and witness our pathway players in action all
in one location,” he stated.
“These teams coming together at Lidcombe Oval is really quite unique, and having our NRL and NRLW players
watch on is an added bonus.”
It’s an opportunity to make amends for last year for Silktails head coach Wes Naiqama, whose brother Kevin played
90 NRL games for the Wests Tigers (2015–18). “We were not very good on the road, but we won seven of our nine
games in Fiji,” he remarked.
“These away games are really important to us this year because we missed the Ron Massey Cup finals the last two
years by just two points—one win.”
The Silktails’ second obstacle is moving from the Ron Massey Cup’s eighteen rounds to Jersey Flegg’s twenty-six.
For 2024, a team of 37 players has been selected, of which 20 will play games in Australia on weekends that
alternate.
We have had the largest player turnover since switching to the
Under 21 squad. Only six of the players from 2023 have been
retained.Despite the significant shift, our 15-week preseason in
Lautoka was excellent. I’m quite content with our current
situation.
“Despite a lot of anxiety and excitement, we have a strong and competitive squad and a clear idea of what we want to
accomplish this season.”
