Charlie Brown attracts plenty of attention from the Goldies defence on Saturday and rightly so after being touted as likely the best player in the competition. Below, Izzy Manchester wins the ball for Harden.
The Devils went to Boorowa to play the Goldies on Saturday in what was a must win match. The boys in red came out of the blocks hard and posted the first points through a try to Tom Lenehan. The kick went unconverted and it was Boorowa who were next to cross, converting their try to make it 7-5.
Harden were in the match for the whole game but went down 22-5 to a Goldies outfit which wasn’t going to give in. The Goldies now face the Yabbies at Young on Saturday for the 2024 premiership.
The Times spoke to Devils Coach Jack Alcorn after the heart breaking loss.
He said, “Boorowa hit back strongly and they never really faltered throughout the rest of the game. They went up 7-5 and then scored another one just before half time, which put the score at 12-5.
“We were definitely in the game. We were in the game for the whole game, but just couldn’t quite get our attack right.
“Boorowa scored again almost straight away in the second half to put it at 19-5 and then 22-5 with a penalty goal later in the match to nearly put it beyond reach.
“Overall the year was a positive year. We had a fair few new players come in and it was one of those years where you build on things and get the team together and positive energy through the team and that all happened. We have most of our players going into next year, which is also positive.
Alcorn lay the feeling of the day out for the Times. He said, “We didn’t really get to play much of our structured footy. After half time when they scored that try, we got into a little bit of a panic and every time we got the ball we tried to swing it wide straight away early. The whole point of our game is to try and draw defence in and we didn’t draw them in and they had enough counter-defence out wide which is probably what brought us undone.
“Charlie Brown and Tom McClay were two standouts. Tom McClay had an absolute cracker stealing lineouts and winning our own lineouts. When asked who he thought would go a step further and win the premiership, Alcorn wasn’t able to pin a blue ribbon on either side, such is the competitiveness of the comp.
“I think the match on the weekend will be too close to call. It will be whoever turns up and plays the best game on the day. Reflecting on the year that was, he said, “This is my second year coaching and the biggest thing I’ve learnt is that I know we can do it and we just have to turn up and play our game each week and if we do that, we have beaten all the top teams. So if we can do that again next year we will definitely be looking at a top three spot again.
“I’d like to thank the players and supporters for a good year and also their support and we will be back ready to roll bigger and better next year. The Devils will be holding their presentation night in a fortnight with a red and black tie ball at the Country Club. Contact the club for tickets on FB.
SHE DEVILS Go Down Fighting
The Harden She Devils have completed their season for 2024, and in true Devils spirit, they did so, fighting all the way to the end, going down to the very strong Grenfell outfit 19-12. Young played Grenfell last week and were kicked out of the finals in a very close and hard-fought match and it was no different on Saturday when Grenfell returned to the same ground to take on Harden. Harden had 50 points put on them the previous week by Temora and it was always going to be a tough task against them if they beat Grenfell on Saturday to put them in the Grand Final against the Tuskerettes.
The Times spoke with She Devils coach John Manchester after the loss.
He said, “Grenfell had the bigger forward pack and they had the luxury of more numbers. “Grenfell scored first and converted to make the score 7-0. Then we scored through Kelsey Hogan, but missed the conversion to bring the score to 7-5.
“Grenfell scored again to make it 12-5 at half time.
“At half time our girls were lacking a bit of confidence to back themselves, because when they had the ball they needed to be confident with it.
“Our defence was letting us down a little bit in places, which we have been working on for the last few weeks. Hogan stepped up in to the kicking role in the absence of injured leader Maddie Douglass and also played fly half, performing admirably.
“Cailin Ebbott, ‘Willow’ scored next to put the score at 12-10 and she got the conversion to make it 12-all.
Things took a turn for the worse for Harden with Molly Glover suffering an injury. The Times checked in with Molly who has since been cleared.
“We got a serious injury to Molly Glover in one of the scrums, which saw the game delayed and the Ambulance came. We kept the girls warm enough and when everything was settled the game continued. Molly was ok in the end which really good.
“When the game restarted there was a good half of footy remaining. At that point the game could have gone either way. We got a few more injuries, a few head knocks, Jayda hurt her knee and Leila hurt her ankle and once we ran low on troops, Grenfell took advantage of it and scored right under the posts with about five minutes to go.
The She Devils could have gone further into the series if there were a few more local ladies willing to play as the biggest thing is numbers for the side which is littered with talent.
Manchester said, “Scraping up numbers during the year has been a challenge, but we seem to get enough girls each week, but come finals time we still only had twelve on the list. We could do with more.
“Thanks to Simon Glover for his help during the year and to Roger who strapped the girls and kept them together, but it was sad to see both his girls go out with injuries. I’m proud of what we have achieved and so should all the team.”
