Monday to Friday Shar Walden is a teacher’s aide, but come the weekend at the North Ipswich Reserve he is still handing out the lessons - his subjects are individual tries and brilliant fullback play, with footwork the class after lunch.
Walden has played six Intrust Super Cup games for the Ipswich Jets and scored two tries, but the best try he’s scored was for West End against Goodna that nearly got the Bulldogs home in Round 3 of the Volunteers Cup.
“I just got it off the hooker about 10 metres out and used some footwork and got the try," Walden said.
The Bulldogs were ahead of Goodna at half time 16-8 and after coming back hard at the Eagles after they led 8-0 after 15 minutes.
“I am really enjoying it, I was a Goodna junior but all my house mates play for West End,” Walden said.
“It got hard during the break to stay focused and playing in the Volunteers Cup has been awesome. I love it."
Walden is confident that he can take his form back to the Jets and build on his six Cup games for the Jets.
“I think I can go back to Jets and start pre-season and end this season fit and happy," Walden said.
Volunteers Cup Round 4
Toowoomba Valleys v West End
This week, for Round 4 of the Volunteers Cup, Walden is wary of a Valleys side that is coming off a massive 52-8 win.
“Toowoomba are coming of a massive win over Norths so they will be confident in what they’re doing," Walden said.
Toowoomba are on two wins while West End are on just the one after three games.
“The competition is starting to find its level, it took the first two weeks for teams to settle but now I think you’re seeing form and patterns," Walden said.
“Ten tries last week and four guys got doubles so Valleys are with Goodna the form team it will be a good test for us.”
Walden will be looking to take some Valleys defenders to school this week in Round 4.
Gatton v Goodna
Gatton are coming off their first win of the year over Souths 26-24. Gatton flew to a big half-time lead on the back of Michael Frohloff and his three tries.
Hawks took control after two minutes with Frohloff scoring his first try and he had his second before half time to give his side a half time lead of 16-10.
The treble was complete and the Hawks win when Frohloff scored his third just before fulltime and Gatton won 26-24.
The Hawks will have a unique challenge up against the unbeaten Goodna who are coming off a after the siren win over West End.
Goodna got away to a great start lead 8-0 but then let West End come back and at half time the Bulldogs led 24-20 with seven minutes to go but Goodna’s experience shone.
With former Jet Ramon Fillpine and Redcliffe Dolphins 2020 signing Bessie Toomaga-Aufaga having played nearly 100 Cup games between them, Fillpine was man of the match with his try, giving Toomaga-Aufaga the chance to kick the winner and give the Eagles a 26-24 win.
Gatton will need to apply their start from the win over Souths and keep it going for 80 minutes the Goodna Eagles finish strongly.
Toowoomba Souths v Norths
Souths let Gatton get away to a start and then they could not peg it back no matter how hard they tried to hold onto the ball.
Souths were without Mitch Tuite and it showed with their kicking game suffering.
Souths were full of fight and from 10-0 down after 10 minutes it could have got a lot worse than the 26-24 loss.
Norths will be wanting their day over again, it was only 8-0 to Valleys after 20 minutes but from there the Toowoomba Valleys players took the game away from the Tigers. It was the period just before half time that cost Norths. They fought so hard to get back to 14-8 but then let Valleys score three tries and half time became 32-4.
This game will played for the ‘Redemption Cup’ with both teams looking to make up for last week. Souths and Norths are both on one win so someone is jumping ahead.
