2019 Shute Shield season review: Western Sydney
With a solitary win and a wooden spoon, there’s no denying the fact Western Sydney had another really tough year in 2019.
There were promising signs towards the end of the season but heavy losses to Sydney University (49-3), Gordon (43-10) and West Harbour (41-15) in their first three games of the season set the tone in a way, and certainly left the Two Blues chasing their tails at the very least.
With more battles to retain players and forced reshuffles as well, it proved a difficult campaign in more ways that one but head coach Joel Rivers does see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Overview with Joel Rivers:
“We started off well in terms of the pre-season, numbers were good and it was very positive but I actually think a few players might have had their expectations too high because of that,” Rivers said.
“In my mind, I think it took us a lot longer to learn how to build a win than I would’ve hoped and while we did have that good win against Souths, and th