Alex Slavin used his controlled aggression against Binalong well at Binalong last time they played, with the former star junior winding back the clock to deliver an inspired performance. The big man will need another huge game and force Binalong to tackle him in threes at tackling in twos often doesn’t work. Partner in crime Drew Arabin will also have to use his aggressive style well and his timing of knowing when to run and also his running at smaller opposition catching them out in a mismatch to break the line close to the line.
A 34-16 win over Crookwell at Crookwell on Saturday has seen the Harden Hawks finish third on the ladder. Bungendore gets a week’s rest on 23, Binalong finished on 23 and will welcome Harden to their Rec ground this Saturday, while Harden finished on 22. The Coota Bulldogs finished in fourth place on 20 in a highly congested table where it looks like any team in the top four could beat another. The Boorowa Rovers, last year’s premiers are back in fifth position and nearly dropped out of finals contention on Saturday, after a draw of 28-all against a UC side determined not to finish the year without a win. The draw kept Boorowa a point ahead of Crookwell and knocked them out of the finals and gave UC something to talk about on Silly Sunday or Mad Monday.
The Times caught up with Nick Hall who is planning his assault on the Brahmans after they defeated Harden just a fortnight ago at the Hawk’s Nest. We spoke about the weekend’s match and what to expect this week. Hall turned back the clock on Saturday and went through a gap, running 30 metres, with the fullback doing his best to stay out of the ‘old bulls’ path as he came rampaging down the field before surprising the opposition, stepping around the Crookwell player for a nice try.
Hall said, “The weather was great. It was a great day for playing footy. “Around semi finals time the weather starts to change. You get a week or two where the heat does impact some of the forwards and it can be tough. We need to start preparing for that too. It’s a winter sport and then all of a sudden it becomes a spring sport and that’s tough. Austin Power 2, Nick Hall, Jack Nicolls 2, Drew Arabin and Riley Manwaring scored tries for Harden, while there was a bit of a mix up with some of the kicking duties with the Hawks set to get that right this week.
When asked about his try and him being off what has traditionally been referred to as the ‘nudie run’ Hall said, “I ran about 30m. Just a little play we run fairly regularly. Browny jumped out and hit me and I went through a nice little whole around the ruck and it was good, good fun.
“Their fullback planted his feet and expected me to run over him and I snuck around him. “If we had of lost, we would have stayed in fourth on points for and against and it would have put Crookwell in and we would have played Crookwell at home. “Crookwell were good. They came home with a wet sail, they just didn’t quite get their timing right. They were playing the right style of footy.
“It’s probably a battle for Boorowa right now. I think they are struggling with injuries and momentum and they would probably tell you that a draw with UC on the weekend is not a great sign for them the way they are playing right now. “They are a better team than that and it’s hard to connect it up in a week or two at the end of the year.
“Crookwell were really tough, they were hard. We jumped out to a lead and the game settled for a good thirty minutes either side of half time and they had a lot of ball early in the second half. We had to defend for ten to fifteen minutes, a lot of sets, back to back where we turned the ball over, dropped the ball, had a few calls go against us, but I’m glad we got it. It was great defensive practice for us going into semis.
“As a coach I’m glad we got that as you can’t replicate that at training.
When asked what Harden has to do to beat Bianlong,
Hall said, “I don’t think either side is going to change a whole lot. The changes they made last time whether forced or reactive were good, I liked the way they aimed up. “If I was the Binalong coach, but I’m obviously not, but the coach in me looked at what Rawlo did with those changes and thought they were pretty good. Having Swaffy in at dummy half really tightened them up defensively and he works hard and offensively he challenged around the rucks, if there was anyone on the ground or any looseness he got them and he gives good service.
“The coach in me appreciated that change and thought it was pretty clever and the rest of that side is hard working, they stick together, they give you nothing. I don’t know if they will change a lot. They are a good enough side to have some little trick shots they might be working on, but I think if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and they will just jiggle with it and we are probably the same.
“We are pretty much playing our footy right now. You are not going to see wholesale changes. We are going to cover Hillsy and play slightly differently. Hillsy has his own footy that he injects into our game, but we have other guys who can play some footy as well. Harden has lost Will Hills at a terrible time of the season with an injury to his jaw and it is very likely he will not take the field again this year due to a fracture.
“Sometimes we get a bit Hillsy focussed and what that does now is allows us to put the ball into some other guys hands. “It would be really nice to win this week for the fact it would be nice to have a semi where you get to play with the girls on the same day and have all your yellow and blue shirts and off field positions and committee combined on one day. It gets hard when you have to split your resources. Harden take on Binalong this Saturday at Binalong at 2:30pm.
