The score was 40 to 10 and we played with 12 people for 60 minutes too,” Nick Hall said, recounting the weekend’s local derby against the Boorowa Rovers where Harden had to D-up to get the job done.
“Holmesy got sent off. He went on the field and was quickly back off it. He was like Connor McGregor, walked out, walked off.
“Just unlucky. Their player just ran and slipped into the ball and I think there was two sendoffs.
“So then [the referee] did a square up in the second half and sent one of their blokes off 10, minutes into the second half. But we still had to go half an hour, one down, and then it squared up, but I think both were, 10 in the bin at best.”
The win was much welcomed by the Harden club who are on track to claim the club championship.
“It was a very good one, we are one win from securing the minor premiership and the first week of the semis off,” said Nick.
“We’ve got UC this week at home, the last home game of the year. But we get that, then we get a home semi.
“We’ve got one more comp game because we’ve got a washout round the following week.
“When we were to play Bungendore, that game was washed out, so we are going to end up playing at Bungendore next week.
“I didn’t want to have UC then a week off and then another week off and the semis. So, I’m glad that we’ve got a game of footy there. I want to be playing a little bit of footy leading into them.
“Bungendore will give us a bit of set for set, good footy. It’s something decent to take into the semis.
“I’ve never shirked the job of going to Bungendore, we haven’t always had good results there, but I still appreciate the game and the style of footy we get to play against them, so it will be good.
“I think Jack Nichols scored the 1st try. Casey Wall scored a try. Will Manwaring scored a couple, Corey Lucas scored one. Josh Turnbull scored one. So, there was a few try scorers. Will Manwaring scored a couple of real key ones in the second half and that just slipped us ahead when the game was still pretty tight.
“The first half they played energetically and pretty well and we just did not complete.
We didn’t play our best footy in the first half, then we got a send off. We still fought for a win in the middle, which, one down in the middle of the ruck, for us to still win the middles, the boys played great. So that was really gutsy.
“I was really proud of our defence and our toughness. We just weren’t great in attack.
“But the second half, we played the completion game well, the field position game, and it was just too much, but then we piled on points, put on 30 odd points in the second half. That was pretty good.
“Best performances were Corey Lucas, two runs a set. He was huge. Casey Wall in the middle was huge.
Defence was great. His distribution was great. Will Manwaring, those guys got all the points.
“Zakia Lewis kicked really well, but Casey Wall’s been doing a little bit of kicking.
We probably shared the kicking throughout the year, a few different blokes. So hence you don’t really see any one of our blokes. We’re the top points scorers, but no one’s on the point scoring list because we’ve sort of really shared the kicking and the running and those sort of things.
“I think the half time score was 8-6.”
Boorowa can have a rowdy crowd at times and they love the local derbies.
“The crowd was good, they were probably no worse and when you go to Harden they are lunatics, you go to Boorowa and they are lunatics, every local ground’s got a flavour and generally the local lunatic element, you get some loud ones, that’s good. I like that,” said Nick.
The Hawkettes got the job done but were down on troops.
“I am pretty sure Clare and Georgia were in Sydney for some rep training and they had to train all day,” he said.
“Georgia had to leave the rep training to get back. Emma James missed her first game in like 10 or 11 years or something and she was stuck in Wagga for the NRL women’s round. So it was a pretty good effort. I think they ended up winning a 8 or 10 to 6, something like that, but a pretty gutsy effort without those 3 key players.
“Boorowa are a good team. They can be defensive and committed and they did that.
“It was a good chance for the girls to do well. It’s a good sign, with two rounds to go, they’ve had no losses. I think they had one draw. Harden’s doing pretty well this year, there’s a club championship about to be awarded, two minor premierships. It doesn’t get you anything at the end of the year, you have still got to win the semis.
“And North Canberra are the same. They’re both coming 2nd in men’s and ladies’.
When asked who Harden might face in a Grand Final, Hall said, “I think it will probably come from the top three, Boorowa and Bungendore on their day might do something, they’re probably going to play the first semi, 2nd verse 3rd will be Crookwell and North Canberra at this stage.”
“So, the loser of that will have to face Bungendore or Boorowa.
“If they get knocked around in that first game and the winner of the 4th 5th comes up, those sides are all capable. Anyone in the top 5 could, you’ve only got to put two or three wins together. Anyone in the top 5 is capable. I think it most likely comes from the top three, they’re all playing pretty committed footy.
“I think the top three sides are the top three fitter sides right now, healthy and fitness wise.
“North Canberra, Harden, Crookwell, I think the winner likely comes from there.”
Harden will welcome back key players this week.
“I think this week we see Tyson come back. We see Corey Lucas come back this week. We see Naku return from overseas. Unfortunately, we’re about to lose Kyle Sharp, our Centre, he’s there this week, but he’s about to go overseas. It’s terrible timing as it’s two or three weeks, so that’s a bit of a frustrating one, but nonetheless, that’s happening.
“Riley came back on the weekend, just played a small amount of minutes, didn’t impact scoring or anything, but just got back into it. Riley will be back this week.
“So if you count Riley, Jacob, Tyson, Naku, there’s four coming back. That’s pretty good. We have got one or two injuries, so we’ll give those couple of guys a little rest up.”
All Roads lead to Goldies’ Heartland for a Home Grand Final
Jack Alcorn knows that actions will speak louder than words on Saturday, so he will be bringing his best squad to try and secure a home Grand Final and a vital week off by leading from the front.
Boorowa haven’t travelled well this year, but the Showground has been more of a fortress for many years.
Jack said, “We played Grenfell at Grenfell and we beat them 36-19.”
“It was tough. They played well, we just got over them at the end of the game.
“Ollie Minehan scored first and we kept scoring.
“At half time I think the score was 19-5.
“Grenfell are always a bit of a bogey side. They had some good numbers up through the middle and inside ball carriers but we were able to hold them up.
“That is the end of the competition proper now, so it is straight into finals, so Boorowa at Boorowa.”
Coota will play Condobolin at home.
Joe Stewart will make a welcome return and the Backrow will be bolstered by Luke Thorsby’s return Boorowa will host the Devils at Boorowa on Saturday August 8, at 3:15pm in the Major Semi Final.
Harden She Devils Lock In For The Finals
The Harden She Devils have had a difficult year but that hasn’t stopped them from securing 4th place on the ladder.
Coach John Manchester has been around senior Rugby since the late 90s when the hard word was put on him to go and play his footy at Young.
John said a quick chat with John O’Connor all those years ago turned the Kingsvale based lad into the Harden Red Devil legend he is now, and he continues to import his knowledge on the ladies side.
He said, “The lead into the finals for the ladies looks like we’ve got West Wyalong in Boorowa.:
“Our last game we played well. The first 10 minutes the girls really stuck it to them, but we just got a little bit tired with having three weeks off. It showed a little bit on the field that we hadn’t played for a while.”
The number of teams and the draw can be a downside of the comp, when byes can pile up.
“Definitely when you’ve got them in a row like we did,” he said.
“The first semi will be 4th position, Harden, verse 3rd position, West Wyalong.
“I’m pretty sure it’s in Boorowa, and we’re the only team to have both teams in the semis.
“Players player was Charlotte Hardy last week and three points to Lilly Hogan. They were probably the two standouts for the weekend.”
The She Devils have one thing to do to beat West Wyalong according to ‘Manch’.
“Hang on to the ball,” he said.
“It’s going to have to be a huge effort from the girls defensively. Obviously, they’re a bigger pack than ours so we’ll try and use our speed out wide as much as we can.
“The girls were there for the 2024 comp, didn’t have a team in ’25 and back this year. It has been a battle at times for numbers, just through a lot of injuries to knees, ankles, shoulders.
“We are in 4th place, so it’s a must win.
“The score on the weekend was 29-5. They kind of ran away with it in the last few minutes of the game and just got too tired.
“Speed is our thing so we probably need to try and add a bit of size to the pack in the next few years if we can.”
Go She Devils.
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