Welcome to another edition of Tah Talk with Joel Foster. This week we take a long at our 2 Men’s Club Captains, Willa Pearson breaking more records, and this weekend’s junior representative Grand Finals.
A big thank you once again to Scott MacNeill and the team at Gibson MacNeill Lawyers for their partnership with this season. If you have any legal needs, no matter the size, visit them at www.gibsonmacneill.com.au
Beer pong goes off like a song
Last year saw Ollie Melville and Jacob O’Sullivan selected as our Club Captains for the first time.
In 2025/26 they are now into their second year, and I can’t commend them enough for the work they put in.
I can’t recall ever seeing such great social engagement on the Men’s side of our club over the last 2 years, and it is due to the drive of both Ollie and Jacob.
Last weekend was a great example with the second running of our now annual beer-pong contest. Yes beer-pong may sound like it’s from the 70s and 80s but gee it’s a fun night.
The boys were put in pairs and had to dress up as a dynamic duo.
We had Eshay’s, coaches Roy Vumbaca and David Gardiner, and Superman and Darth Vader as some examples.
Winner of the night was Ted Lasso (Matt Brewster) and Coach Beard (Axel Karlsson-Lacey, don’t worry only on the ginger beers).
Highlights were Darth trying to use his special forces during the matches, Willy G’s great input, and the distraught reaction from Evan Dunnachie and Jordan Brewster after going down in the grand final. The greatest travesty of the 21st century according to them.
Almost all of this organisation came down to Ollie and Sully. They work tireless for our club to make it better, and we are better for having them.
Junior Reps move into the finals
It’s another fantastic day of junior rep cricket this Sunday as the Manly Warringah Junior Cricket Association U17 and U15 junior rep teams take the field in Grand Final action.
The U17s take on St George after convincingly defeating Illawarra in last week’s Semi-Final. It comes after a similarly large victory over Parramatta the week before.
They are coming into the big one in red hot form.
The U17 Watson Shield side contains most of this years Green Shield side, and a lot of our 5th Grade team. Will Graham, Darcy Horstead, Harvey Matheson and Angus Pike to name a few.
Watson Shield is an interesting competition. It has floated between U/16 and U/17 over the years and has not always had the best age group players playing.
But that has changed this year with almost all Green Shield players across Sydney taking part. So, its prestige has gone up, and the Waratahs in the mix.
Similarly, our U15 Weblin Shield side, which includes most of next year’s Green Shield squad, are also in the final match of the season. They take on Parramatta.
Archie Wragg and skipper Nathan Cole are the competitions 2 leading run scorers with 430 and 420 runs respectively. Beau Moran sits in 7th spot with 373. Jacob Watts also sits atop the bowlers list with 20 wickets.
It’s going to be a match for the ages.
Best of luck to both sides. Go Manly.
Christmas comes early for Pearson
We spoke earlier this season on these pages about the amazing feats of Willa Pearson, becoming the youngest ever Women’s A-League player.
Well, she is doing it again with her selection in our first-grade side for this Sunday’s clash with Penrith.
I haven’t done all the maths, but it is believed that she will be the youngest every Women’s 1st Grade player for Manly at 14 years and 11 months.
It caps off an amazing few months for Willa. Hopefully she can put in a good performance leading into Christmas and then put her feet up for a while over the summer break.
There is no doubt that she deserves it.
