By Tallon Smith

There were emotional scenes at Yanco Sportsground on Sunday as the previously winless Yanco-Wamoon Hawks Reserve Grade side held on for a tense 16-12 win over West Wyalong.

In front of an extremely vocal Ladies’ Day crowd, the Mallee Men struck first, before the Hawks hit back via their evergreen five-eighth Rodney Coelli and powerful centre Josh Daudravuni to take a 12-6 lead into the sheds at half time.

The Mallee Men responded almost immediately after the break, with Max Harland taking a ‘speccy’ that wouldn’t be out of place at the MCG to level the game at 12-all.

Then, with 14 minutes left on the clock, Yanco second rower Rhys Hanley crashed through the defence of the red and black wall to put the Hawks in front 16-12.

In a tense final 10 minutes, Yanco repelled wave after wave of West Wyalong attack, with last-gasp kick to the corner with 30 seconds left marked by Hawks winger Jordi Hillman, before first half tryscorer Rodney Coelli ran the ball over the dead ball line to ensure Yanco won their first game in over a year in dramatic fashion.

After an extremely difficult campaign where they were forced to withdraw from the First Grade competition, Yanco-Wamoon coach Tamaki Kohere said that the long awaited victory was an extremely emotional one for the squad.

“We’ve struggled a lot [this year], and to do it in front of our home crowd, in front of the ladies, the women that make our lives so special and always do so much for us was very, very important to us and I know the boys loved it every minute of it,” he said.

“We’re not just a footy club, we’re a family, we all enjoy each other’s company and nobody puts each other down. 

“We all [lift] each other up and make sure that everybody is okay.

“At the end of the day, the win was good but not everything is about winning, it’s all about enjoying footy. 

“We just went back to our roots and remembered that footy is a game that we played when we were kids and we played it because we loved it, not because we wanted to win.”

Kohere said that the key to the Hawks’ win was a focus on sustaining their performance for eighty minutes, after late lapses cost the team a chance to win a couple of games earlier this season. 

“We’ve always struggled with only playing 40 minutes and then lacking a bit in the second half and with this game, everyone put in and it showed,” he said.

“I think just the boys never giving up, giving 100% the whole game [was the secret].”

West Wyalong Coach Andrew Preston said that despite the loss, there were positives to take from the match, particularly in his side’s defensive performance.

“The last couple of weeks we haven’t started well but today I thought we started really well, our defence was up for it and then we had just too many penalties, a bit of ill discipline,” he said. 

“At the back end of the first half we let them back in the game, we were just doing too much defence but the defence was good for most of it so if there’s any positives I can probably take that.”

Next up for the Hawks is a trip to Yenda on Sunday, while the Mallee Men will face off against Hay at Ron Crowe Oval.