By Tallon Smith

As Round 1 appears on the horizon for clubs across the state, the Harden Hawks are beginning to gear up for their 2024 campaign in the George Tooke Shield competition.

Heading into their 18th season in the Canberra Rugby League’s second division competition after leaving Group 9 in 2006, the Hawks are seeking to bring home their first premiership since their 2017 victory over the Crookwell Green Devils against a strong field.

Senior Men’s Coach Nick Hall said that the Hawks’ pre-season training regime is off to a slow start, but he fully expects momentum to pick up ahead of Round 1 in April.

“We’re a bit slow getting started, it’s just the nature of the competition I think, sometimes some sides are getting into it in November and December, Group 9 sides, but it’s probably not the nature of that George Tooke competition,” he said.

“We’re into training now but it’s a slower start, so we’re at that point where we’re getting training started, looking for players.

“But we’re into it, we trained last week, we did a few sessions before Christmas, we’re training this week.”

Hall said that one key focus for the side is finding a couple more players to fill some key positions in the backs and spine.

“[We’re] definitely keen to get our hands on one or two more players right now because of usual attrition, a few have come and a few have gone,” he said.

“I think we start a couple of weeks after Easter this year and it’s a good competition in the George Tooke, so we’ve got to really get going if we’re going to be competitive again in it.

“I’m just finding out who we’re playing when the competition starts, all that sort of stuff.”

Speaking on which sides will challenge for the title, Hall said he expects many of the perennial powerhouses to be in the hunt come finals time.

“Bungendore has been strong every year, North Canberra were traditionally the side for a number of years and they started showing signs late last year that they were finding their feet,” he said.

“In this competition it’s all about the players, if a few players leave things can go south quickly, so I don’t think any side is guaranteed a top five spot, you’ve got to show up with the players.

“Boorowa won the competition, but sometimes on the back of that you can have retirements, hopefully all those players stick around because they’re a bloody good side, they’re obviously the Premiers for a reason.

“Cootamundra is going to be strong, Bundgendore is going to be strong, I’ll go for the Premiers and say Boorowa is going to be in there too, but the top five has been very close for the last two or three years in this comp, so hopefully we can be in there swinging as well.”

The George Tooke Shield competition will kick off in April, with nine clubs as Binalong re-enter the competition after a year in recess last season, replacing Burrangong, who themselves are entering recess in 2024.