The Harden Hawks fended off the North Canberra Bears over the weekend in their 14-10 win at McLean Oval.
Coach Nick Hall was impressed with the result saying, “I don’t think many people expected us to do that, but we thought we could. We had a game plan and a style that if we stuck it together, we could do it and it turned out that way. I thought we were pretty good, but we left a few tries out there. We probably could have scored two or three more. We hustled really well in defence and our attack played at their spot players pretty well and maybe took a bit of gas out of their tank. When it came time for them to use the ball, they just didn’t quite have any punch. They were good and they had a bloody physical side and they were hard, but I think they just lacked a little bit of finish and it paid off in the end for us.”
Trailing early was not in the game plan, but the Bears used their strength and crashed over early to give themselves a 6-0 lead.
The Hawks fought back with a try from the midfield by the shifty fullback Austin Power and a try from the dynamic centre Joie Whybrow.
The contest continued back and forth, with an extended period of the larger Bears crashing the line up until the half. The scores were locked at 8-6 to the Hawks with plenty of footy to be played.
After the half, both the Hawks and Bears Scored, which included a spectacular try from Hawks five-eight Lane Gaudie.
The true test of the Hawks will to win was when a Hawks player was sin-binned during a 15-minute assault from the Bears at the end of the game.
Explaining the style of footy that wins the Hawks games, coach Nick Hall said, “we have some guys you have to watch and we play a risk-reward sort of footy. Sometimes we turn it over which means we end up defending our own line. We turned the ball over poorly a few times with some little tips and things that weren’t high-percentage plays but that’s just the way we play. There comes a point where you have to stop whining about it and start embracing it. That’s the way we play, we ask questions and defences have to be ready to defend that.”
Holding them out meant the Hawks can celebrate as they move on to the next round, where they play their neighbouring rivals the Cootamundra Bulldogs.
The past games between the Bulldogs and the Hawks have always been interesting with the season tally being one all. The Hawks won the first matchup of their season in Harden 24-16, and the Bulldogs won the next meeting in Cootamundra
Main Photos: Austin Power dives over with Chris Beal in support. Beal makes a break down the right edge before sneaking a pass back inside to support 22-10.
The Hawks will be looking to their electric fullback speedster Austin Power, who has scored 11 tries in his 13 games this season. The biggest try-scoring threat from the Bulldogs that Harden will be looking out for is the fierce Jordyn Ballard, who is the best running half in the league due to his nine tries and 44 points for the season.
Looking forward to the matchup Coach Hall says, “it’s a power versus run game. They play a pretty powerful game and then have guys like Ballard bringing a little bit of polish or a lot of Polish in his case. It’s going to be a power game versus our ability to ask questions and challenge and whether we’re going to be good enough to hold them around the rucks or they’re going to steamroll us. We got them once and they got us once, so it’ll be interesting.”
Coach Hall has high levels of faith in his side saying, “we’re going over full of confidence, you got to back yourself. No point being shy this time of the year, you can play ducks and drakes through the year, but you just got to be honest about it and say we’re here to win, and we think we can win.”
The Harden Hawks and the Cootamundra Bulldogs clash in an elimination final at Les Boyd Oval in Cootamundra at 3pm on Saturday.
Ed Dodds
