But sponges are a good thing. 

A great thing, in fact, particularly if you’re Hancock.

The 23-man squad the Bathurst St Pat’s coach will work with was on Monday finalised ahead of round one of the under 16s championship kicking off on March 5.

And the larger than normal squad will take on the Southern Stingrays at Seiffert Oval, Canberra, in their opening round and Hancock was over the moon with the willingness of the young Rams outfit.

“It’s a great age group to work with. They’ve so green they’re sponges. Everything we’ve thrown at them so far they’ve soaked it all in,” Hancock said.

The Western coach has named an extended squad, 14 from Group 11 and nine from Group 10 clubs. Lithgow Storm’s young gun Harry Hopkins has been included in the side.

Hancock has every intention of playing all 23 players throughout the initial three rounds of the championship, too, believing the more exposure a larger group of players gets at a representative level, the better for Western.

“At this stage I’m fairly certain we’ll be using all 23 players at some stage or another,” he added.

“We thought for Western, particularly at this level, it’s better if we have an impact on 23 players rather than on 19, if we cut the squad to that.”

The squad boasts depth in the frontrow, led by Wellington’s Logan Conn and South Dubbo’s Colby Peckham, while the likes of Jarrod Peachey is another player to impress in trials so far.

But Parkes Marist gun Ben Glasheen is one to watch, according to Hancock.

“He’ll be our fullback and he’s a special, special player,” he said.

The Rams under 16s will travel to Dubbo on Sunday for a massive day of training and welfare sessions, with their on-field campaign beginning the following weekend in Canberra.

Western plays at home in round three, against Bidgee at Parkes.

Hancock added there’s a chance Western will then host championship semi-finals.

“And that should be a pretty big incentive for these boys to go out there and play well, that home semi-final,” Hancock said.

Meanwhile, the under 18s finalised its squad for the country championships, with coach Cameron Greenhalgh picking 18 players to represent Western at the titles.

Group 11 clubs dominate that side too, with 13 members while Group 10 has just four representatives and Bourke has one, with Ray Simmons in the squad.

“We’ve got to build the boys up and then hopefully do the region proud.”