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The secret is out: Emma James has her eyes shut when she takes her conversions. Jake Arabin has been doing his best in the Centres for the Brahmans in 2018. Ben Davis has been a revelation this year and continues to improve out of sight. He has played a number of First Grade matches and continues to help out the Youth League side who this week played on Sunday. A very experienced senior player told the Times, “Ben plays hard, he will go a long way.”
Hawkettes The Jersey Girls went out first against the Hawkettes who score almost 36 points per game and have conceded only 16 points for the whole season. It took only 2 minutes for the hosts to cross the Jersey Girl’s line and the tries kept coming in spite of the efforts of Kayley Hart and Cara Phillis. By the 15th minute the Binalong girls were down 16-0. However, Binalong didn’t lose faith, started to throw the ball around and the Hawkettes made a couple of uncustomary mistakes. This passage of play led to a very good try by Tashe Goode in the 16th minute.
The Binalong girl’s defence was generally very good against a superior opposition and they gain in confidence every week. To bolster their confidence, Cherrae Smith was back after a long lay-off with injury, and she made a difference. But, by half-time the score had blown out to 32-4 and Grace Smith and Emma James continued to terrorize the Jersey Girls, even with Ali Spencer’s running and kicking game. When the second half opened it again took only 3 minutes for Harden to score another try.
Coco Adam continued to defend very well and the visitors seemed to stem the flow of scoring by the Hawkettes, but as the game closed down the Jersey Girls had so much defending to do they started to run out of puff and the hosts ran away with a victory by 66-4. The Jersey Girls shouldn’t feel too bad with their loss, the Hawkettes have become a polished side over the last few seasons.
Georgia Smith scored 3 tries and was ably assist by Casey Smith 2, Tara McGrath-West 2 and Maddie Douglass 2. Kate Menz, Clare Smith and Shannon Hurley all grabbed a try apiece.
Youth League Ben Davis backed up from Saturday’s win against the Brahmans to put on a stellar performance and score two tries against Crookwell on Sunday. Will Stanley and Jakob Halls each got a meat pie whilst Rory Bolger kicked a conversion with Ryan Daley chipping in with 3. The 24 points wasn’t enough to beat the Green Devils from the high country who amassed 26 points and have now taken second place from the young Hawks side. In 2018 Yass are 7 from 9 with a draw, Crookwell 5 from 9 and the Hawks 4 from 9 with a draw. Harden appear to be the superior attacking side of the competition with 231 points for and claim second place with their defence conceding 98 points; however, they find themselves in 3rd place on the ladder which points to some inconsistent performances thus far. Harden will take on Tuggeranong on June 16 at Boorowa after the long weekend.
First Grade The Waldren Constructions were on a “hiding to nothing” at McLean Oval last weekend in a display of raw talent and endurance by the Harden Hawks. A frosty morning was followed by a cloudy and cool afternoon and a bleak outlook for Binalong. Harden kicked off towards the High School corner, the Hawks followed through and pinned the Brahmans in goal. On receiving the drop-kick Harden pressed their opposition, with Half-Back Nathan Schofield racing in for the first try, which he converted and the Hawks led 6-0. At the 14th minute the Hawks crossed again but missed the conversion to lead 10-0, again through Schofield. They repeated this 7 minutes later, to lead 16-0 when Luke Brown crashed over from Hooker; however, the Brahmans got the ball back after a short kick-off.
Ben Spencer was playing at lock this week and put up a lot of strong defence. Nevertheless, the hosts weren’t daunted while Binalong were attacking their line closely. One pass went astray and was intercepted by Junior Lafaele, the Hawks’ Centre. He gained valuable ground, before his colleague Jono Pouono flashed up beside him and crossed the tryline making it 22-0 to the Hawks. Soon after Harden put up a towering bomb which was defused by the Brahman Fullback. However, he was tackled in the air giving Binalong a penalty. Then with just 3 minutes remaining in the first half play petered out, until the hooter sounded for the break. Despite strong runs by James Bundy the visitors could not make much impression on the scoreboard. The Hawks managed to keep Drew Arabin at least contained to some degree, but some of the Harden players would have found the cost on Sunday morning. Hawks’ dashing second-rower Jayke Hogan touched down for a great try in the kiosk corner. A superb side-line conversion by Nathan Schofield was long, high, and straight between the posts.
A great restart by the Brahmans fooled the Hawks, going straight threw them, forcing a line dropout. Binalong regathered this kick, but in the blink of an eye flashy Hawks’ Centre Puonono picked up a wayward pass and sprinted 45 metres down the centre of the field to score a spectacular try—his second, under the sticks. The try of the match fizzled out, when Luke Brown threw more dummies than in the Harden Pharmacy, then passed the ball out, but was denied when Binalong stripped the ball as the Hawks forward was to touchdown. In the one-sided encounter the Hawks added another three tries to the tiring Brahmans’ side. One each of Andy Reid, Ben Davis and Sam Davis making the score 50-0.
Jono Pouono and Hooker Luke Brown had cut Binalong to pieces all afternoon but Chris Enslow was up to the task. With their backs to their line, a stoppage in play against the Hawks saw a set play by Pete Adam fling a long cut-out pass to new winger Shane Rennie who dived over in the corner for a 50-4 result. Nathan Lilliard’s attempted conversion took paint off the outside of the McLean Oval uprights for Binalong to lose 50-4. No George Tooke Shield next week and Binalong will not play at home again till July 7th. A general Bye on the June Long Weekend, then a Harden bye, until the Hawks play ADFA here on McLean Oval on Saturday 23 June. Let’s hope they bring their Number 4 Platoon. Wings, bos Indicus and MS.
