In a massive boost for the Orange Barbarians captain-coach and former Group 10 premier league title winner Ben Gosper will stay on in 2017, club president Paul Rudd confirmed.
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After leading the side to its maiden New Era Cup finals berth during 2016, Rudd confirmed Gosper has committed to at least one more season with the red, white and blues.
On top of that, he said he expects to retain the majority of the rest of the playing group too.
“Ben Gosper will be staying on as captain-coach again next season and we have retained almost all the team from 2016,” Rudd enthused.
“Hopefully we can add some experience in the halves to help us ... go deeper into the semi-finals in 2017.”
Barbarians finished fifth in both the men’s and league tag divisions in both sides’ first appearance in the finals, a feat the club celebrated along with the success of its player at its recent presentation.
Gosper claimed best and fairest honours for the men while Tegan Ryan took out the league tag equivalent. Jake Allen and Gemma Newman won the side’s respective players’ player gongs while Grant Cocks and Sami Laing were the highest try and point-scorers.
Paul Hussey was named Barbarian of the year.
“We are pretty pleased with how the season went and the growth of the club into genuine contenders,” Rudd said.
Barbarians were beaten by CSU Bathurst (26-22) and Villages United (18-16) in the men’s and league tag elimination semi-finals.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
