Josh Sykes celebrating with Ratu Saurara.
Binalong-bred Josh Sykes will be hoping to taste Grand Final glory this Sunday when his Junee Diesels travel to Wagga on Sunday to play the Gundagai Tigers in the final showdown of the 2022 season.
The Diesels story as a team is similar to Josh’s rise through the ranks.
Junee were underdogs to begin the season due to a lack of numbers and Josh made the leap from playing U18s into taking on men in all shapes and sizes. Josh and Junee are preparing to play in the biggest game of them all.
Josh found himself at Junee through his job as a Stock and Station Agent in Wagga.
However, he found his way through to the Diesel faithful’s hearts, with his uncanny ability to steer his team around the field and his tackling technique, which continues to leave forwards faces stunned as they’re dropped by a young man sometimes half the size of them.
At the beginning of the season, there was fear amongst the town that they may not have any men’s team to barrack for this year with the First Grade side dropping out of the competition due to lack of numbers and the Reserves looking like they were walking right beside them in what would’ve been catastrophic for men’s rugby league in Junee and all of Group Nine.
For so long the Diesels have been a stalwart club of Group Nine, with many teams getting their schedule and prematurely marking their game in Junee as a loss vs the Diesels.
The Diesels had made Junee into an opal palace where teams would come hoping for a win, but leave happy they didn’t lose by even more, though with only a few weeks before the curtains opened on the season it looked almost certain that not only would they not have a First Grade side, they’d also fail to field a Reserve Grade side.
Insert Josh and a few other brave young men who took the big step up from under 18s to Reserve Grade.
Josh couldn’t be any prouder of his team.
“I can’t explain how happy we are, from how we looked at the start of the season, not knowing if we were going to be able to have a team to playing in the Grand Final, it’s unreal,” said Josh.
“The biggest thing was us growing in confidence, stepping up playing against men was intimidating at the start but once I made a few tackles, I knew I could handle taking on the bigger bodies.
“Having the big Fijians and forwards around me really helped bring my game a long way. When I first started playing with the team I was a little shy, but then the boys got around me and told me to be a leader and order them around and I tried to do just that.
“Mum and Dad have been great, coming over all the time and supporting me, and it’s helped me settle in over here and I’ve come to love the work in Wagga.
“I’d also like to thank the Diesels for giving me a chance to play for them and hopefully we can win the Grand Final on Sunday,” Josh continued.
Josh wants to continue playing for the Diesels and hopes they’ll have him back in 2023 “I’ll see what happens after the Grand Final but I’ll definitely keep playing footy and hopefully it’s with the Diesels, I’d really love it to be.” The last time the two teams met was on the Tigers turf, where our men went down 22-18.
This time though it’s neutral ground, the sides will do battle at McDonalds Park in Wagga on Sunday at 1:35 pm. Good Luck to Josh and the team as they look to bring the Grand Final home to its rightful home of Junee!
Tully Potts
