By Tallon Smith

The West Wyalong Mallee Men have shown they are a legitimate force in the 2023 Group 20 First Grade competition by downing the Yanco-Wamoon Hawks 56-10 at the JDP Logistics Yanco Sportsground on Sunday afternoon.

The Mallee Men started fast, with tries to Jaxon Lemon, two to Myles Harland, and another each to Logan Collins and Tom Connors opening up a mammoth 28-0 half time lead before the Hawks had even warmed into the contest.

After the break, West Wyalong fullback Logan Collins achieved his double, and things were beginning to look ominous for the Hawks at 34-0.

But the Yanco-Wamoon defence finally held firm, and off the back of that, club legend Billy Ingram crossed for the Hawks’ first try, which was converted by fullback Rowan Matthews for a scoreline of 34-6.

The fightback was short-lived though, with Lemon grabbing his second, followed by captain Tim Dore getting his name on the score sheet. Winger Tom Connors was next to cross the line, completing his hat-trick with two tries in succession. Halfback Bobby Jones also impressed with the boot, kicking 7 from 9, including some tougher attempts from out wide.

At 56-4 with less than a minute to play, Hawks centre Harry Daudravuni made a brilliant dash for the corner to salvage some pride for the Hawks, with the conversion being unsuccessful for a final score of 56-10.

West Wyalong Captain-Coach Tim Dore said the win was “pretty good” for his side as the competition turns into the home straight before finals.

“We dug in pretty deep, the scoreboard didn’t reflect the game, they were fairly physical in patches,” he said.

“But we had a lot of injuries, as did they, so we were just happy to get away with that one unscathed with injuries and score some points.”

Dore also spoke of the impact injuries have had on the club’s charge towards a finals appearance in 2023.

“We’ve got a lot of injuries at the moment, so we should hopefully get a few back against Hay,” he said.

“If we keep building from that, we put in a good performance last week against Leeton as well with only nine fresh, so if we build from that like we did today, we should be pretty good looking into finals hopefully, if we can stay injury free.”

Yanco-Wamoon Captain-Coach Kane Hammond said his side is “keeping good morale” despite a difficult few weeks, something that was evident in their spirited second half performance despite the large half-time deficit.

“I thought we came out in the second half and we started really well and then they got an early try,” he said.

“But we didn’t fall away, we kept on pushing and that last sort of ten minutes, when we ran out of troops [and] we had nothing left, they whacked on a couple more tries.

“But for 30 minutes in the second half we played good.”

The Hawks are facing a difficult final few weeks, especially in regards to their lengthy injury list, which includes starting forwards Brenton George (rib injury), Elwyn Ravu (knee) and another injury from Sunday’s game to Will Kelly (knee).

However, Hammond is remaining positive that the club can get something out of the final few weeks, with even a finals berth possible should the club get some of their injured stars back on the paddock.

“Yeah I think we’ve got five games to go, obviously we’ve got to play the top three sides in those five, we want to try and test them, definitely,” he said.

 “And then the other two games we definitely want to be trying to win them.

“But you know, the three against the top three, we wanna try and push and test them over 80 minutes.”

Prior to the Men’s game, the all-conquering West Wyalong League Tag side cruised to a 70-0 mercy rule demolition of the Hawks. The girls in red and black are the runaway favourites for this year’s title as they race towards finals with an undefeated record (7 wins, 1 draw), a game clear of the Griffith Black & Whites in second.

However, the most important moment of the day occurred when the Yanco-Wamoon women left the field, with Hawks Coach and President Pat Hart congratulating his side on their effort rather than focusing on the result. Maybe a few other coaches around the traps could take a leaf out of his book in remembering that it is a game of country football, not a fight for a sheep station.

Meanwhile, at the Darlington Point Sportsground, the DPC Roosters inflicted Leeton’s first loss of their First Grade campaign with a 26-20 victory over the Greenies. Leeton opened the scoring with two quick tries, before the Roosters struck back through Luke Hogan and Joe Peato to level the scores before half time. However, in the end, DPC ran away with the match with Sam Storey, Ethan Taufa and Jon Huggett crossing for the Roosters to seal the victory and end the Greenies’ eight-game undefeated streak to start the year.

The Hay Magpies also picked up two points against Tullibigeal-Lake Cargelligo, not by way of a victory, but a forfeit by the away team. This marked the first time that a First Grade game has been forfeited since Hay forfeited to the Griffith Waratahs in the penultimate round of last season, and is something we certainly don’t want to see too much more of in the future.

The Yenda and Griffith Black & Whites game has been postponed until the 6th of August following the tragic loss of former Yenda player Dane Richards.

Next weekend (8th/9th) is a general bye for Group 20 across all clubs and grades, with no games washed out and needing to be played.

Cover Photo: The League Tag game in front of the many spectators who preferred to stay in their vehicles due to the freezing weather at Yanco on Sunday.