Ned Mullany, Young and Jack O’Connor, Harden, Coaches of the Young Yabbies and Harden Red Devils respectively.
From The Editor
The Harden Red Devils will take on the Young Yabbies at Robert’s Park in Murrumburrah on Saturday in the Grand Final of the 2020 Oilsplus South West Competition.
Saturday’s Grand Final is the culmination of a short, sharp season of 7 matches and a final series of just one sudden death knockout match, for each of the Grand Finalists.
It was very fitting today that the Coaches of both Young and Harden gathered on the Back Creek Road (Kingsvale Road) for a photograph with the Oilsplus Cup amongst some glorious canola. It was nearly neutral territory in that it was close to the village of Kingsvale, half way between Young and Harden-Murrumburrah, however, Ned had to drive to the southern side, making it closer to Harden than Young. This year’s harvest looks set to be much improved with the canola having shot out of the ground thanks to the recent rain, after 2 seasons of intense drought.
We will look at some statistics in part 1 of our story, before we talk to the coaches, and Harden’s major sponsor Delta, through Gerard Hines in part 2 of our feature piece.
The Devils suffered their only defeat during 2020 to Coota, in what can best be described as a quagmire at Country Club Oval on August 15. The men in Red ended up being the men in mud, just as their opponents the Tri Colours did.
Harden went down by 10 points that day and avenged the loss with a 30-12 win against Coota on a dry track at Murrumburrah last Saturday.
Harden have scored an average of just over 40 points in attack in each game this season and conceded just over 10 points a match.
The last time they played Young was in the first round, all the way back on July 18, where they played the Yabbies on Harden soil and ran out victors 22-7.
Young have had 2 losses this season. The first round against Harden and the second loss in round 4 against Boorowa when they went down 24-13.
Young have scored an average of just over 30 points in attack in each game this season and conceded just over 15.5 points a match.
That may tell us that Harden has a better attack and defence. Better by 10 points in attack and able to keep their opposition to 5.5 less points than Young, however, these stats won’t mean too much on Saturday, they are but an indication of each team’s attacking and defending prowess. Saturday will come down to 80 minutes of frenetic Rugby Union. Young proved this last Saturday.
The Boorowa Goldies were the dark horses of the competition and were leading 17 nil against Young. The Yabbies remained cool, calm and collected and stuck to their plan. The talk at half time was positive. They came out and scored 24 points in 24 minutes. A classy display in a come from behind win.
In contrast, Harden came out of the blocks straight away and then defended well. They continued to score to win 30-12 against a Coota side which lost soldiers both before and during the match. The only teams to beat last year’s premiers Coota this season, are the two sides facing each other on Saturday.
It could be a close one. In fact, it is likely to be a very close one. Both sides are willing and determined and have peaked at the business end of the 7 round season.
More to come
