The Harden Worhawks are already preparing for a big 2022 Katrina Fanning Shield season. The Harden based ladies league tackle side finished last season in sixth position on the ladder with two wins, two draws and seven losses, but are hoping to turn that around in the upcoming season.
The group have been training together since January in hopes for a rise up the ladder and improved form throughout the entire season.
David Ings, trainer at the Harden Worhawks said the squad has already been shaping up during pre-season and training so far has been positive.
“We started training even before the Hawks and Hawkettes started training, so we’ve been at it for some time now,” David said. “We’ve averaged 12 players to training every week, which has been good. “We’ve got 25 players on the books this season, so we are looking alright.”
The Worhawks conceded 336 points against last season, with a points differential of -270, which is an area that they have to improve on greatly this season.
“We’ve been practicing a lot of defence and different combinations. We’ve got a few new girls who haven’t played before, so we’re just working on getting them up to speed with rugby league,”
David continued. The Worhawks will play their first match of the season in May, with round 1 slated for the first weekend in the month, which is in line with the Group 8 competition in Canberra.
The 2022 Katrina Fanning Shield fixture isn’t out just yet but is expected to be released sometime in April.
“We should be a lot better than last year, we struggled with numbers last season. We had good numbers on the books but getting everyone to games was a bit hard,” David said. “We went to some games in Canberra with only 11 players. We struggled a bit with numbers at away games but should be a lot better this year.”
The Worhawks have a direct and honest projection about how they see the club going forward in 2022.
“We’re aiming for the finals. Last year we could have made them, but the season was cut a couple games early and we had a couple games to play against a team we could’ve beaten.
So, we could’ve scraped in there if we had finished the season, but COVID shut it down early.”
The Harden side will come against familiar teams just as they did last season, including Goulburn, Yass, Queanbeyan, Tuggeranong, UC, and Boomanulla, along with this season a possibility to face new teams from the South Coast, potentially including Batemans Bay.
The Worhawks will have a new looking squad in season 2022, with a sizeable number of departures and inclusions to their list.
“We’ve had quite a few departures but have about 10 or more new players joining the club. We’ve also got a new coach coming from the other side of Goulburn,” David said.
“We also have local girl Tara McGrath-West in the squad, alongside Hunter who is currently at the Raiders at the moment but will be back with the side in about a month when the competition starts. “With those two in the team hopefully we’ll be a much stronger side.”
Tim Warren
