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Rugby League Returns to Darwin: Navy Tridents vs Darwin City · WCBH

• 0:17
  Hey, it's Cam from WCBH. Representative Rugby League returns to Darwin for the
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  first time on home soil since 2019.
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  It's all happening this weekend, the King's birthday long weekend.
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  We've got two clashes coming to you. We've got an NRLW combined selection match.
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  Now, this is going to be between Southern Heat and Darwin City.
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  Southern Heat are going to be coached by Danielle Smith. She is the coach of
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  the Palmerston Raiders women's team in the True Flow Services Premiership.
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  And Darwin Heat is going to be coached by Ronnie Mariko, the coach of the sisters
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  in the True Flow Services Premiership.
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  That game is happening at TRL Stadium.
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  Saturday, kickoff for that game is 5.15. Following that, we get into our main
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  game, which is Darwin City, who will be coached by South Darwin's Daniel Roach.
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  And they are taking on the Navy Tridents.
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  The Navy Tridents are a Defence Force team. They've flown into town this week,
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  and that game kicks off at 6.30pm at TRL Stadium.
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  Hopefully we can get a big crowd down there. But if you can't get there,
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  keep an eye on NRLNT social media pages because we will be sharing the live stream link.
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  And this live stream will be taking place through YouTube, so it will be free
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  to access. And joining me on the line, James Cashman, who is the coach of the
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  Navy Tridents, and Stephen Taylor, who's the director of Men's Rugby League.
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  Cashy, Stephen, thanks for joining me on WCBH.
• 1:44
  Thanks, Cam. Thanks for having us.
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  Great to be talking with you. And right at the top, I suppose we should give
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  a shout out to Lexus of Darwin, who are helping you get around Darwin during your time up here.
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  Let's start with who are the Navy Tridents?
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  So one of the key incentives for Australians to join the defence is the opportunities such as sport.
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  Navy itself has certain approved sports that receive funding through the Navy
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  Sports Council and the Tridents are the representative team for rugby league in the Navy.
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  How good is that? So alongside your work, there's a lot of activities around
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  sports and I would imagine music and those sorts of things to engage people,
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  keep their well-being up and this is all part of that program?
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  Yeah, 100%. So there's a major focus on that well-being piece and one of the
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  things we've actually got in our policy is five hours of approved PT and then
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  each fortnight, obviously, there's some team sport as well. So some really good opportunities.
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  How good is that? Now, in addition to being the coach and the director of men's
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  rugby league, can you just sort of unpack what does that mean?
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  So myself, I've been on the committee for three years now.
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  That's included as my first year where I was the WA rep. And then pretty quickly
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  after that, I switched over to the director of men's rugby league.
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  This kind of allows me to provide strategic planning for our yearly schedule
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  and opportunities for development across each of the bases. So I speak with
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  the coaches such as Cashy, sort of come up with a plan, and then obviously all
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  our regional coordinators as well.
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  So I'll pass on to Cashy and what he does.
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  Yeah, thanks, Cam. I'm the head coach of the Navy Tritons this camp.
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  It's a great opportunity for myself to develop my leadership.
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  As it's the first time I've coached the squad, hoping that further opportunities
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  present itself in the future.
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  And whereabouts are both of you based? So I've come from Stirling,
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  which is over in WA, just on Garden Island.
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  I come from Sydney, HMS Waterham.
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  How good is that? And I can just hear from your explanation there,
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  the complexity of this type of project, because we're not talking about a team
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  that's based in one city or at one base.
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  You're coordinating players from all over the country. That's correct?
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  Yeah, that's correct. So we've actually had players flying in from all over the country.
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  That stems from Victoria, where we've had a recruit flying, which is an interesting
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  aspect, which doesn't normally happen, but he was lucky enough to fly out and
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  he's shown some real talent this week.
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  We've also had people from New South Wales, Cairns, a few more from WA,
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  and then we've also got local players coming from Darwin.
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  How good is that? Now, in terms of rugby league got opportunities in the Navy.
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  Do you get to play against the Air Force and the Army as well?
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  Yep. So each service has their own representative side. They also have development opportunities.
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  And one thing we get to do as Navy is verse either the Air Force, the Army.
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  We also verse different services such as the police, fireys,
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  whoever can field a team.
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  We're pretty much happy to play them. It's always a great opportunity for us
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  to have that sort of camp and battle it out with whoever's keen to versus us.
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  I imagine there'd be a fair amount of friendly rivalry between the forces.
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  There definitely is. Earlier in the year, we had a combined event where it was
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  Navy and Air Force versus Army.
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  And you could definitely cut the tension with a knife.
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  We were both staying at the same barracks. So yeah, definitely a rivalry there. How good is that?
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  How did this opportunity come about to travel up to Darwin and to take on Darwin City?
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  Thankfully, through strong previous relationships between myself and the NRL
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  NT general manager, Tony Crow, some future planning was done a couple of years ago.
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  I've also given credit to Jamie Ryan, who's a PO PCI down in Cerberus.
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  He currently coaches the Cerberus team and he's been instrumental in that early
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  planning and creating pathway for those recruits to come into rugby league,
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  especially the Tridents team.
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  Okay. And is this just going to be a one-off or is there hope that this can
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  become a yearly fixture on the cards up here in the Territory.
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  The intent's definitely to continue holding this event. Major growth in the
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  service-related values and traditions. So what we are looking at is including
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  some sort of ceremonial events and then also having a key focus on mateship.
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  So whether we move the event to Anzac Day or maybe the King's Birthday,
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  something similar, we'd like to
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  have a little bit more of a push in the meaning behind the game as well.
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  Yeah, that would be wonderful. And particularly because Darwin's such a garrison
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  town, like there's so many forces based up here in the top end,
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  not just the Australian Defence Forces, but the US troops.
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  And, you know, at the moment, we've got Operation Pitch Black taking place over
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  the head, over, not Operation, actually that Exercise Pitch Black taking place
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  over our skies at the moment.
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  So to me, it sounds like a really good fit for up here, but just to build in
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  more of that meaning, just to make sure that the community really understands
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  the tremendous disservice that the Australian Defence Forces gives the top end and Australia.
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  Yeah, we've been lucky enough to see a few of the jets fly over.
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  In Navy, we call that CHARI, something we get excited about.
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  And definitely in terms of future planning, taking it to that international
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  stage where we can invite some of the Americans, some of the Marines to the camp would be great too.
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  Yeah, how good is that? Just speaking of the jets, they're flying around behind
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  me at the moment, which is always a wonderful thing living up here in the top end. Now, am I right?
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  You've had a change of name. You weren't always the Tridents.
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  You were something else before?
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  Yep. So originally when we started, it was the Navy Titans, but we did have
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  a rebrand. It's a little bit more fitting that we're the Tritons now.
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  And we've also updated some of our logos and some kit design.
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  So yeah, looking forward to some of the new kit that's coming out this year.
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  I'm a Gold Coast Titan supporter, but it makes absolute sense not to be the
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  Titans and to be something more associated with the oceans and with the power of the sea.
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  So the three-pronged spear that Poseidon or Neptune holds the Tridents,
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  that makes a whole lot more sense to me.
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  So you mentioned that players have flown in from all over the country.
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  How often do you get together as a team to develop your game plan and develop
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  those combinations out on the field?
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  Yeah, Cam, we get together around every three months or so, just trying to get the team together.
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  We've got players coming from all over Australia like Perth,
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  Cairns, Sydney, and Darwin. It's a great opportunity for the boys to get around
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  each other and speak about what's happening on their end.
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  Also, it brings awareness to Navy Rugby League throughout the Defence Force.
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  So, this NT camp is quite significant then, not just for the clash you're about
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  to play, but that's one of those check-in points across the year or across the
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  season to get the team together and just to see how everyone's travelling and
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  to develop that framework.
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  Friendship and camaraderie across the service.
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  Yeah, that's exactly right, Cam. So from a planning point of view,
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  this is the first milestone with our first camp of the year.
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  It works in that development opportunity.
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  We've also got Indigenous round game against the New South Wales Police.
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  That'll be the first time they've ever entered an Indigenous team.
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  And that'll be played before the Southsouths Eels game.
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  So definitely looking forward to that one. and then we'll move into our inter-service cup.
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  And at that point of the year, the boys should be well and truly prepped and
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  hopefully we can get some more Navy boys in the ADF team.
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  Yeah, it's such a good message to be talking about.
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  Like if you're a young person and you're considering a career in the Defence
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  Forces, just to know that it's not just the job, there's also the things like
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  league and the other sports and the other activities that are there available to participate in.
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  All right, let's have a look at the game now.
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  So when did you arrive in Darwin? How's training coming along?
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  Yeah, training is coming along really good. Arrived in Darwin on the Sunday,
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  so we started camp on the 1st.
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  Training's good. We're sort of focusing on areas of attack because we've got
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  a pretty fit, fast squad.
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  And defensive-wise, we're pretty switched on as well. So see how we go game day.
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  It's almost the unstate of origin-esque that you've gone into camp
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  and you know you're doing multiple training sessions across the
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  week it sounds like darwin city they're going
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  to need to select a strong team they need to be ready because it
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  sounds like you're you're raring to go yeah the
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  boys are definitely keen obviously it's a new experience for
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  us training every day so we're hoping to get a little bit of recovery in but
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  yeah very much looking forward to having that battle and hopefully can be one
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  of those sort of state of origin events and where we can have a bit of rivalry
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  every time we come up so you mentioned that there's some local boys in the team
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  but there's plenty of players coming from interstate are they struggling with the weather up here?
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  We've managed to plan a little bit around the weather. So most of our training
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  sessions have either been early in the morning or later in the afternoon.
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  We've also broken it up with strategic drink bakes and shorter sessions.
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  So, so far, the boys are doing quite well in terms of our training plan.
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  And I believe that the game on Saturday is going to be shortened halves as well.
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  Yeah, so we'll have 30-minute halves with a 10-minute break and then there'll
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  be unlimited subs, 20-man team and extra sort of water coming out as well.
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  So plenty of that risk mitigation just to avoid any sort of heat stroke or any
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  of those symptoms coming through.
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  Yeah, 100%. Now, I'm commentating the game on the weekend and I can't wait to
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  see the lineup. But is there someone that I should keep my eye out for?
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  Yeah, definitely Cam. In the halves, Cameron Bevan, as I mentioned before,
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  he's a very fit bloke, fit, got really good footy IQ.
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  Much similar to our fallback, Jono. He's basically very fast,
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  sort of very good footy IQ.
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  He gets around the boys and makes sure they're doing their job.
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  So, yeah, those two are definitely have a hard look at.
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  And you mentioned that one of the recruits has managed to get onto this trip
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  as well. That probably says to me that he's probably got a fairly solid rugby league background.
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  Yeah, so Jamie Ryan down in Cerberus, he highlighted, I believe he's a Group 7 player down there.
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  Right. Yeah, he's definitely shown that talent.
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  Since being here. So absolutely deserves his spot and we're glad to have him.
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  How good is that? Now, after the game, do you get any downtime in Darwin or
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  do you get straight back to your postings?
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  Yeah, so win or lose, a fundamental part of each camp is having the boys spend time together.
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  The end of the camp is a major component in this regard, and we'll definitely
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  have a final team bonding session Saturday night.
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  A team breakfast Sunday morning will probably also be on the cards just before
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  all the boys have their flights home.
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  That's so good, and that's the best thing about being involved in rugby league
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  is the friendships that you make along the way.
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  We've been talking with James Cashman, who's the coach, and Stephen Taylor,
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  who's the director of men's rugby league for the navy
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  tridents they're in darwin this saturday two
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  huge games happening at trl stadium at 5
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  15 p.m we've got the southern heat up against
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  darwin city that's an nrlw combine selection match so get on down to trl to
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  see the women play and then at 6 30 the main game we've got the navy tridents
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  our guests in town up against darwin city this is representative rugby league
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  returning to darwin kashi and stephen thanks so much for joining us on WCBH.
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  Thanks a lot, Cam. Pleasure. Thanks, Cam.