Dubbo Junior AFL's Carmen Armour coached the Under 15 Central West representative side

Dubbo Junior AFL's Carmen Armour coached the Central West Under 15s side who travelled along with the 13s, 17s and Youth Girls side to Nowra to play against sides from Illawarra, Sapphire Coast and Shoalhaven.

Armour was pleased with her sides which featured players from Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst's attitude after a tough weekend.

"The boys performed incredibly well," she said.

"They came up against some stiff competition, they came against the [Illawarra] Storm development squad in their first game which was under lights and after travelling six hours."

"It was a very physical game and we certainly didn't come away with the win but the coach of the other side did say to me at the end that whatever we did at half-time worked because we certainly came out and gave them a shock."

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Armour felt the side continued to improve across the weekend should be proud of themselves by the way they finished the carnival.

"We started to get our game together in the second half of the first game and we progressively played together more and more as a team and Sunday was definitely our best set of games even though we played two games back to back," she said.

Coming up against some of the best junior Australian Rules squads in the state is always challenging and especially with limited preparation. Training with a whole squad is often a struggle for the Central West junior sides who only play once a year and Armour knows the talent her side has going forward.

"I know all of these kids and they are phenomenal athletes and talents but it is no doubt really difficult to put a team together when they don't train together," she said.

"So we've had three weeks together and some of the kids have come to a couple of training sessions and the trials but they haven't actually ever played a game together before they get down here.

"That's just really tough because you are starting with 'does everyone know everyone's name' so considering the geographical challenges we face they've done incredibly well.

"What really impressed me about them was none of them dropped their heads, they kept their heads up and they kept fighting through until their final game on Sunday."

The weekend was Armour's first time coaching the junior representative side and it was something that has left an impact on the mentor.

"It was fantastic, I work with high performing kids and adults all the time," she said.

"It's really inspiring to work with these kids who really have bright futures but the potential to be whatever they want to be."

"How could you not be inspired by that."

Armour and her players will now return to their junior competition which will resume on July 18 after the school holidays.

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