The Harden Worhawks travel to Bungendore this weekend to play in the Katrina Fanning Shield Division 2 Grand Final. The ladies have worked hard to get to this point, beating the Boomanulla Raiders 24-0 and then going on to beat the UC Stars 42-4.
The game will be a send off for senior player Melissa Ings.
They face their toughest challenge yet in the Grand Final when they play the South Coast United Marlins. The Marlins were unlucky to miss the finals only missing out by six points. Whilst the tale of the teams are rather different with the Worhawks being more of an underdog throughout the finals series and the Marlins being the Goliath of the Div 2 finals perhaps even believing they were capable enough of playing in the division one finals.
During the season when the two teams previously met it was the South Coast side that brought home the chocolates when they beat our Worhawks 22-10.
The saying still holds true in finals footy, anything could happen.
The Worhawks have proven they love a finals footy game and have seemingly done a full 180 on a regular season that had them finish 7th from 8 teams. People that have attended Worhawks games throughout the season could’ve foreseen the team’s Grand Final surge however. Though only winning one game in the regular season, they’ve very rarely been beaten by many points and proved themselves to be quite the handful for their opposition. Since the club’s inauguration just a few years ago, they’ve continually shown improvement and regardless of the result on the weekend this will have been the best season in the club’s history. The Cinderella run from the Worhawks has been a great team effort, with young guns Hunter Ings, Chloe Wade and Ua Ravu continuing to have terrific seasons and veteran players Jen McKay, Kristy Brown and Mellissa Ings providing great leadership.
Mellissa Ings is hoping for a big send off for her final game on Saturday. “The girls have stepped up so much, trying heaps and just improving to get the team together,” she said.
“Since 2019, when we first started the comp, it’s been difficult because there’s only been three girls that have lasted since 2019 and every year, it’s a new team of juniors coming through. “If we play this game like we played last weekend, we will win. “We’d love to win; it would be the best send off in the world for me.
The girls just communicated so well on the weekend and with all our plays that we’ve been practising at training, it just worked. “We’re just going to go in with a headspace like that. I reckon we can take them there.
“I’m just hoping that we can keep the team going next year because, David and I, we’ve taken over a little bit. The club’s going to step up and help out.”
Kick off will be at 12:10pm at Mick Sherd Oval at Bungendore this Saturday. Goodluck to the WorHawks this weekend as they look to run riot over the Marlins.
Tully Potts
