The late winter sun shone brightly over the Boorowa pitch, but a sharp, malevolent wind dictated the terms of the Grand Final battle between the dominant home side, the Boorowa Goldies, and the valiant challengers, the Harden Red Devils.
The final score of 19-5—a margin suggesting a comfortable Goldies victory—is a cruel ledger that fails to capture the immense guts and heart poured into the contest by the young Devils. It was a match ultimately decided by the elements, a momentary lapse of personnel, and the hard-earned experience of a veteran squad.
From the opening whistle, the Goldies, guided by veteran fly-half Richard Mannion and five-eighth Josh Carmody, cannily exploited the fierce wind. With the gale at their backs, Boorowa secured a disproportionate share of possession and territory, camping deep inside Harden’s half.
For the young Devils, the first half became a grinding defensive effort. Their playmakers, including half back Joe Stewart and kicker Jack Glover, found themselves constantly kicking directly into a brick wall of air, struggling to clear their lines and unable to relieve the mounting pressure.
This territorial strangulation allowed the Goldies’ powerful, veteran forward pack to deliver a constant, overwhelming physical assault.
The contest through the middle of the park was a desperate war of attrition, with the Harden forwards absorbing blow after blow.
Yet, the Red Devils’ line held firm until fate dealt them a significant, compounding blow.
Their tough-as-nails veteran front-rower, Jeremy Martin, a true pillar in the scrum, went down with a shoulder injury. While the injury couldn’t keep the “old boy” off the field for long, his absence was the chink in the armour the Goldies had been hunting for.
The hosts capitalised immediately, winning the subsequent scrum contest with a drive that showed their greater collective experience and size, then powering over for a try, scored by Mark Poplin.
This was the critical moment. Coach Jack Alcorn later reflected on the moment with the honest frustration of a man who saw his structure crumble under circumstances beyond control: “Where they were able to get that try in the scrum, I actually ended up having to go in the front row, which is not ideal. Marto had an injury, so there’s not much you can do about that, but I thought our scrums were still quite good compared to what they have been in other games. We held them a lot, but they did have two or three dominant scrums, which definitely helped them out a bit.”
The immediate consequence of this tactical victory saw the Goldies skip out to a 14-0 buffer by half-time, having added another try through Josh Sloane, with Josh Carmody converting one. The score felt like a mountain, but the Harden Red Devils were not a team to be measured by a halftime deficit.
The Red Devils came out in the second half with renewed purpose, their coach’s strategy clear: “We are a very fit team, and one of our strategies was just to try andwear their forwards out so that we could find some space in them, and obviously we did after half time there, which was nice.”
This strategy yielded immediate dividends. In a moment of sheer brilliance, the visitors found the space they needed when Jarrod Keelan delivered a great line to burst through the defence and score their opening points.
The momentum felt as if it had shifted, the crowd sensing a Grand Final comeback. However, the subsequent kick from virtually in front was missed by Jack Glover, a momentary but crucial lapse that would haunt the Devils, robbing them of the full reward their hard work deserved. Though this try made the score 14-5 and offered a genuine glimmer of hope, the Goldies’ experience and forward dominance soon returned.
Harden had briefly ruffled the champions, but Boorowa resumed control of the field and the contest, grinding the game down and ensuring the Devils could not sustain their attacking surge. The Goldies put the result beyond doubt when Rob Stirzaker crossed the line, with Pat Johnson’s conversion providing the final nail in the coffin at 19-5.
Despite cruising, the final 10 minutes saw the Red Devils muster one last, defiant stand, throwing everything at the Boorowa goal-line. This period was a testament to the resilience and fitness of the young squad, forcing the Goldies to scramble in a manner they hadn’t needed to all season.
After the final whistle, the emotion in the Red Devils camp was palpable. Coach Jack Alcorn captured the mood perfectly: “We came out, all the boys were excited, and at the end of the day, we gave it all out, and I can’t ask any more than that from anyone, so that’s the best part of it.”
He gave Boorowa full credit, noting their defensive strength: “We threw a lot at them and they never really let anything through, which is a real credit to those guys.” But he also acknowledged his team’s missed opportunities, saying, “I think we probably just didn’t quite stick to our structure enough, and that was probably our downfall, and we didn’t capitalise on some opportunities that we had.”
Alcorn was quick to single out his heroes: Jarrod Keelan had “one of the best games I have seen him play,” and Nick Alcorn had a “cracker in defensive efforts,” but ultimately, the coach knew the defeat was simply a learning experience for a developing team.
“A lot of that team, there are probably five or six new fellas playing in the starting side, so Boorowa have had that team there for well and truly three or four years now,” Alcorn noted. This lack of cohesion, coupled with niggling injuries that had built up over the season—the “part of footy” that wears on a young squad—proved too much to overcome against a premiership-calibre team.
The Harden Red Devils left the field in defeat, but their heads were held high. They had been beaten by a better, more seasoned side on the day, one that was simply better equipped to manage the conditions and capitalise on a vital injury. But their young core had been tested under the highest pressure, and they proved they belong.
Alcorn’s final promise was a warning to the competition: “You get us into another couple of round games, and I think we are going to be pretty hard to stop next year.”
The Goldies had claimed the premiership gold, but the Red Devils had banked the experience, and that promises a far more formidable challenge when the two sides meet at the pointy end of next season.
– Tully Potts
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