The Junior League is heating up as it’s finals time, four junior league games will be played at McLean Oval. One of the highlights of the junior league this weekend is the Harden-Boorowa Hawks under 16’s League Tag versus the Cootamundra Bulldogs Under 16’s League Tag grand final at 10:40am.
Hawks Junior League President, Chris Beal, is delighted with the team’s success saying, “ it was a very successful season. They’re probably been the team to beat all year as they’ve only lost one game. So, they go in with some good form and hopefully win.” The Hawks have won the last two of their match-ups against the Bulldogs and are hoping to repeat their form. The first meeting was in round four when the Hawks ran away with a 42-8 victory and the second was in round 11 when the Hawks got away with a narrow 14-10 win. Coach Steph Piper took over from Hawks player Jamie Stephenson as coach midway through the season without a fault.
Coach Piper has led the Hawks to the best offensive and defensive record in their pool, with an average score of 28.5 points while only allowing opponents to score an average of 5.3 points per game.
The Junior Hawks feed some of the best teams in the district, including the semi-finalist Harden Hawks and the Hawkettes, who are the undisputed premier side in the women’s League Tag. With the junior players coming through the ranks, Beal said, “our junior numbers are really good too. So hopefully going forward we’ll have a good representation of them in the coming years again.”
Taking over from long standing and respected president Kai Steele, Chris Beal has been appreciative of his support in his transition into this demanding role.
Chris said, “It’s been a good year. My first year in the hot seat after Kai did 10 years and did a great job, Kia and Karen actually.
They’re still involved as a club and still helping out. Their experience and support are very much appreciated.”
Hosting the finals makes this year a momentous occasion for the junior league as Harden hasn’t hosted the finals in many years. Beal explains the extended absence of hosting by saying, “They try to share around the grand finals, and it was our turn a few years ago, but our facility wasn’t ready.
So, we put it back a year and then Covid hit so we missed the last two years. So, it’s just our time basically. We’ve postponed it to this year’s grand final with our new facility.”
Four games will be played at the pristine McLean Oval facility this Saturday with the first being Temora versus Cootamundra under 14’s league tag at 9:30am. Following that game is Harden-Boorowa Hawks versus the Cootamundra under 16’s league tag at 10:40am, then Young takes on Gundagai-Adelong under 13’s at 11:50am.
The day finishes with Cootamundra taking on the Gundagai-Adelong in the under 14’s at 1pm.
Ed Dodds
