Angus Smith, Will Glover, Charlie Brown and Lachie Smith.

The Harden Red Devils had four representatives play for Central West across three divisions during the long weekend and all of the lads returned better for the experience.

The Times caught up with four time Central West rep and Devils stalwart, Charlie Brown.

Brown has represented Central West since he was 20, he is now 24 and has become a mainstay of the back row.

Brown was disappointed with his sides’ finish this year but was proud of fellow reps, Angus and Lachie Smith who played colts and Will Glover who played half back in the u18s.

Charlie was part of Caldwell Cup winning side, where his side had previously won it twice and lost a final.

He said, “We started on the Saturday, played two full games. The first against the Hunter Newcastle side. They brought a fairly strong team down and they outplayed us in the first half and we couldn’t track it back.

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“The second game we backed up against Illawarra, who were another strong side. We managed a draw against them, 12-all at half time and they came back strong and got themselves a draw.

“On the Sunday we played Central North and a few of the boys, myself included, were a bit disappointed with our results on the Saturday, but we managed to put in a good performance on the Sunday and ran out winners by a fairly convincing margin.

“We started off slowly, but by the end of the weekend we built into a pretty good team and played some great footy.

“Gus Smith and Lachie Smith played lock and hooker in the Colts division.

“The Colts did a bit better than the senior mens. They won one and drew one on the first day and on the second day they won one and lost a very very tight game for the second game which would have meant they’d won the whole thing.

“A ball went through and a bounce of the ball went to the opposition, it didn’t go towards us and it cost them the game. It was that close to being in Central West’s hands. They should all be proud of themselves.

“Lachie and Gus have come back with some more skills and a few more stories and it will definitely be good for them in the long run.

“16-year-old Will Glover went and represented in 18s. He played half back and they all but split the minutes down the middle and he got a fair bit of footy under his belt and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He played a bit of breakaway as well. He will no doubt back up and do it again next year.

“It is something that going down and playing with different blokes and learning new things, different coaches, you pick up a few things you can bring back to club level and the more footy you play at 16, the better you are going to be.

“I’m sure Will has come back a better footballer now than he was two weeks ago.

“Everyone pulled up injury free. It’s always a bit of a worry going away to play rep football, but everyone pulled up injury free and everyone was back on Saturday for Old Boys day against Boorowa.

Harden lost the Annie McGuigan Shield for the first time last year but won in back in an excellent game of Rugby.

“We lost it for the first time last year and the boys were very keen to get that one back and a little bit of incentive this year was the jerseys all the boys were playing in and auctioned off after the game. All the proceeds went to Ronald McDonald House.