Luke Snedden is tackled by two Crookwell players. The Hawks travelled down to Crookwell to take on the Green Devils on Sunday. A number of fundraising events were held to raise money for injured Crookwell player Brad Hayes. Many of the Crookwell jumpers went for over $1000 each in the auction.
The bus trip to Crookwell was rewarding in three ways. Firstly although cloudy, the day was quite mild by their standard. Secondly, our HARDEN HAWKS claimed a valuable victory virtually assuring them of the Minor Premiership. Thirdly and most importantly, the day designed to raise money in support of the injured player from Crookwell… BRAD HAYES. From the sale of 25 specially designed Green Jumpers, Raffles, gate money and untold donations, it’s estimated $50,000 was generously raised on the day for BRAD…..UNBELIEVABLE !!! The auctions complete, HARDEN HAWKS kicked off towards the West on the East-West Memorial (soft) Oval.
An early CROOKWELL GREEN DEVIL’s raid ended with a high up and under which was well caught by our Winger Riley Manwaring and the attack ceased. The Hawks were soon up the other end. And from a penalty, Harden made swift passing moves resulting in Luke Brown scoring under the posts. 6-0. From the kickoff the Hawks let the ball bounce and were trapped in goal. Crookwell progressed to Harden’s 20m line, where a high tackle, resulted in Crookwell’s fullback scoring wide out. The conversion successful, saw the scores level out at 6 all. Following the kickoff and accepting the ball The Green Devils kicked on the second tackle….an obvious tactic, as they were to repeat this several times in play. Crookwell with possession and gaining the ascendancy they, in the blink of an eye, raced seventy metres to touch down for their second try. And they hit the front 12-6. Not to be outdone the hawks soon flew past their opponents with another passing rush, giving Rhett Foreman a fine try to level the score at 12-12. All this was after just 15 minutes of play, with both teams going punch for punch, so to speak. Then Harden looked like scoring when Half-Back Nathan Schofield chip kicked to have it caught on the full by his own player,but the Referee ruled him in front of the kicker.( wink wink nudge nudge) .They made up for it soon after with a another try , Rhett Foremans second, HAWKS 16-CROOKWELL 12 at the Interval. The Hawks were now getting on top and with a full blooded attack were held up over the line TWICE, by a determined Devils. Both teams received penalties early in the second stanza, but failed to capitalise. However, Crookwell reverted to the early tackle kick once again, and this time it paid dividends scoring un-touched and the scores were level once again 16-16. But when Harden Skipper Luke Brown dived over between the posts, it was 22-16 to the Hawks. With a little more possession Harden grabbed the whip hand, when Centre Justin Stewart scored in the corner, making it 26-16. It’s not sure what the reason, but towards the concluding stages both sides were guilty of dropsy on many occasions. When the full-time bell rang the scores remained the same with HAWKS 26 GREEN DEVILS 16. WINGS.
Youth League The Youth League side suffered a disappointing loss on Sunday, going down to their counterparts 24-16. Coach Nathan Schofield said “ It was definitely a game of two halves. We played well in the first half but weren’t in the match in the second half. Harden led 16-4 at half time after tries to Pat Smith, Mark Veness and Will Stanley. Hamish Bradford converted 2 from 3 attempts. Best on ground was Chris Fredericks closely followed by Zac Pirie and Jordan Menz. The Harden lads will now have a week off before they head to Tuggeranong for the last round of the competiiton. Coach Schofield said “If we win the last match by 7 points or more we will claim the Minor Premeiership. Goodluck gentlemen.
Hawkettes The Harden Hawkettes have continued their good form by defeating the Crookwell She Devils 14-6 on Sunday. Best on ground were Georgia and Emma James who continues to prove she is one of the best players in the competition with another contribution of a try and a goal for the side. The Hawkettes are at home with the Hawks this Saturday at 2pm.
