Harden Hawks Winger Riley Manwaring left this Braidwood Bear in his wake on Saturday at McLean Oval.
There are more Bears on the block. What started out this season as a call for interested footballers, on Facebook, led to a group of mates, who in three months reformed the Braidwood RL team known as the Bears, after an absence of five years in the George Tooke RL Shield. They play in Red and Black. Harden Hawks Club welcomed Braidwood to McLean Oval after their journey of 200 kilometres, from down south. The rain that had been forecast didn’t eventuate, and McLean Oval was bathed in sunshine most of the afternoon.
On the lush green surface, Harden Hawks started proceedings, kicking towards the Harden High School corner, and almost immediately forced a line drop-out. On receiving the kick the Hawks copped a head high tackle and from the resultant tap penalty, centre Chris James scooted in for Harden’s first try. Andrew Jones’ conversion was astray 4-0. Not long after the Hawks mounted another attack, and on the end of our backline, the man in the blue head gear, Riley Manwaring, raced in for another touchdown. Jonesy misfired a second time, but the tally was Harden 8 – Braidwood 0. The Hawks were throwing the ball around like a hot potato.
The Bears were hemmed in their own territory for the first 20 minutes, and when they did advance, they threw the ball into touch. Harden’s five-eighth Matt McLay was serving his backline in fine style, and when he grubbered a deft kick through, winger Riley Manwaring flashed up to regather and score his second try, his fourth for the season in just 2 matches. With the kicking boots still not on, the score stood at 12-0 to the Hawks. Not long after this, an unusual occurrence happened, when the Hawks gave away 5 penalties, one after the other, well in their own territory. They weren’t punished however, as the Bears failed to score, and the Hawks didn’t receive a sin-binning. It was then Harden’s turn for a strip the ball penalty on Luke Snedden. Capitalising on this, they forged ahead where skipper Luke Brown scored.
This time Andy Jones put the ball right between the posts, for 18-0. Chris James notched up his second try when he cut through, and the score has ballooned to 22-0. The Hawks were well in control. To rub salt into the wound, half-back Nathan Schofield punted a great 40-20. From the ensuing backline movement, Andrew Jones was on the end of it to score in the corner. This time Adam Byrne kicked a screamer from wide out making the half-time score 28-0. Straight after the interval, play began at a hectic pace. Then quick hands saw the ball passed out to Nathan Schofield, who delivered a neat pass to Jayson Smith who saluted the judge in the War Memorial corner. At 32 nil the Hawks had the match parcelled up.
With 15 minutes remaining on the clock, Hawks Front-Rower, Simon Snedden, bulldozed his way over between the posts, this time Andy Jones made no mistake, 38-0. Braidwood Bears were trying hard to add some points, without much luck. However, their reward came 5 minutes from the end, when their centre No 4, slammed the ball down for their only try. The conversion swung wide giving the Harden Hawks victory 38-4. After the half time break, our men found it a little hard to kick on with it. Because the second half only favoured the Hawks 10-4. One could say we were locked in second gear for the final 25 minutes. This Saturday the Hawks fly down to GUNNING to play the Kangaroos in the men’s, and the Rooettes in the Ladies League Tag WINGS.
