The Harden Red Devils travelled to Grenfell on Saturday in a must win clash for the men in red.
A 61-14 win was the order of the day and with ten players unavailable for selection for the Red Devils due to being away or injured, or having work commitments, Harden had to start the game one man down against the 20 man Grenfell team, which boasted a starting side and a healthy bench.
The lack of numbers didn’t stop Harden as they fought their way to a 14-7 lead at half time, which was helped by the addition of their 15th man 30 minutes in. Veteran Heath Kirk didn’t expect to head to Grenfell and play 80 minutes, however, that is exactly what the veteran Prop did.
Kirk started his career well before many of his team mates were a twinkle in their father’s eye and is back relishing the footy and the rum and cokes that go with it, however, a massage this week wouldn’t go astray for the ‘old fella’ whose technique has not diminished.
After the half the Red Devils went wild scoring seven tries and they converted six of them.
The two hat-trick scorers of Josh Quinn and Jack O’Conner combined with the 8/9 kicking performance and a try from Tom Lenehan paved the road for Jimmy Honner and Charlie Fairfield-smith to also score.
Senior player Jack Alcorn described the game as, “physical as usual, I think that they just sort of fell apart.
Their fitness probably was what lost it for them.” Alcorn accredits the Devil’s success to a number of things but pinned it down to fitness.
“Our fitness and our backs. We were just running rampant while all their backs were buggered.” He said.
The Red Devils were extra motivated for the win as they have now claimed a home semi final at Robert’s Park.
With many of the Red Devils stars set to return for the finals and rain on the forecast Alcorn said, “our biggest focus will have to be the forwards and muscling up, especially come scrum times.”
Doing this will hopefully allow the Red Devils to, “let our backs do their good work as they always do.”
The clashes between the Harden Red Devils and the Boorowa Goldies have been historically close with the Goldies winning 14-10 early in the season and the Red Devils fighting back with a nail biting 27-28 win just a fortnight ago.
Jack O’Connor got a great ball around the corner in that game to Winger Tom Butt to score in the corner where Ben Lenehan then went on to kick a beautiful conversion under pressure from the sideline with 5 minutes to go.
This Saturday the fourth place Boorowa Goldies travel to Harden to face the Red Devils in one of the best games of the year.
According to the Central West website the match is set down for 2pm.
Keep an eye on the Time’s Facebook page. There will be a ladies semi-final before the men’s and exact starting times are at the time of print still being thrown around by head office.
Ed Dodds
