Harden Hawks Coach Nick Hall will be donning the maroon and white for the club this Saturday in the first competition match against the UC Stars at Belconnen at 2:30pm.
It’s been 6 years since the former Young Cherry Picker and Group 9 representative forward graced the field and he hopes he can set the platform with fellow Prop Danny Arabin, before unleashing some very handy footballers from his bench.
At 46, Hall keeps himself fit and works hard, from running and getting miles in the legs, to canoeing down the Murrumbidgee to keep his upper body in good form, he knows that it won’t be easy, however, he intends to lead by example, as any good leader does and show some of his young charges how to get the job done.
Those watching should look out for the 1 percenters that Hall will show that will set him apart from the rest.
He first came to Young to play First Grade when many of the players under his guidance were a twinkle in their father’s eye.
However, Father Time won’t stop Hall from contributing on Saturday.
He has a big motor and his talk on the field will help steer the forwards and the young Hawk’s side around. Hall signed with the Hawks in 2021 in a multi-year deal that will see the highly respected coach take the Hawks through a rebuilding phase.
The Hawks went down in their trial match to Coota on Thursday night, however, it was just what was needed according to Hall as Harden and Coota both had trial matches fall through.
He said, “We went in with a big squad trying to get 24 to 26 blokes on the field, but I’m a new coach with a new side and I need to see how they go, I still get to see basic footy, runs, tackles, do they finish on top of a tackle? I saw what I needed.
Unfortunately, we had an injury to Blane Whybrow with a fractured Scapula which is similar to the Cooper Cronk injury and unfortunately the Bulldogs lost Aaron Byrnes which is unfortunate.”
Hall will now whittle the squad down to 20 this week, which is all he can use each week. He may not be able to get them all onto the field highlighting the need for success and to deliver for the club.
With 7 or 8 unavailable this week he is glad that there’s a few players around this year.
Unfortunately Drew Arabin will miss this week’s match after injuring himself at training this week.
Nick said, “The side that we played in the trial will be different to this week, to 6 week’s time. I don’t know a lot about the competition but I think it will be stronger than I thought. We have a new team, they don’t know much about us or me, hopefully we have some fireworks. I’m really excited to pull the boots on. Everyone thinks they are fit until they do a couple of back to back defensive sets and then they go oh crap! Hopefully that moment happens 20 minutes in and not the first few minutes for me.”
The Hawks and Bulldogs match showed that both the bush sides will be very willing this year when it comes to their running and tackling.
It will be up to the UC Stars to be able to see if they can contain the Harden boys and Hall this Saturday. Hawks Hawks Hawks!
The Hawks team for this week is 1. Power, Austin 2. McIllhatton, Thomas 3. Pope, Jarrod 4. Whybrow, Joie 5. Daley, Ryan 6. Gaudie, Lane 7. Lucas, Jacob 8. Arabin, Danny 9. Hills, William 10. Hall, Nick 11. Manwaring, Will 12. Anderson, Steve 13. Jack Quinn 14. Newham, Ethan 15. Manwaring, Riley 16. Peteli, Leo 17. Ah Siu, Emmanuelle (Manu) 18. Alfosio Nik 19. Salesa, Paulo
