More than 300 teams are expected to take part in this year’s Junior State Cup, along with over 12,000 competitors and spectators.

Scone’s squads include the Aaron Watts-coached under-10 boys, the Jesse Schumaker and Scott Pennell-led under-12 boys, and Sofie Casson’s under-14 girls.

Watts said his side, which won the Peter Wilson Memorial Championships in Nelson Bay just over a week ago, was looking forward to the experience.

“It’s good for some of the boys to go away and get a taste of the state cup,” he said.

“Most of them play [rugby] league and other sports together so it’s good that they keep that going through summer.

“They’ve been training for the best part of three months for this.”

Under-12s co-coach Schumaker believed his team was particularly strong this year.

“I reckon we’ve got a pretty good side; we made the semi-finals at Nelson Bay and lost to Newcastle, who went on to win the competition,” he said.

“It’s all about fun at this age, you want to keep them in the sport.

“[But] it’s good to see how we compare to teams from Newcastle who have a lot of players to choose from, whereas with us whoever rocks up is in the side really.”

Casson added it would be a terrific learning curve for the under-14s girls squad.

“We did really well at the last tournament; a couple of teams were all 14 [years old] but, with our team, all of them are a year younger bar a couple.

“It’s a big trial year for them for when they are all the right age and hopefully they’ll pick up little skills and techniques along the way.”

The Junior State Cup will go from Friday to Sunday.