Club Spotlight: Yanco-Wamoon Hawks

Located at the ‘Gateway to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area’, the small village of Yanco is a stone’s throw (4 kilometres) from the town of Leeton.

The local rugby league team, the Yanco-Wamoon Hawks, have been a fixture of the town for over half a century, playing out of the Yanco Sportsground.

Formed in 1970, the club was the product of an amalgamation between the former Yanco and Wamoon clubs, with both villages based on opposite sides of the Leeton town centre.

The club is led by a small but passionate committee, with a vibrant and community-based feel and a highly successful history that includes eight Group 20 First Grade Premierships, five of which were won consecutively between 1992 and 1996.

Club President Pat Hart, a former Hawks player himself, has been around the club for 42 years, putting, in his wife Kym’s words, his “heart and soul into the club” over that time.

However, Hart is fearful for the future of his great club due to an ageing player base in the Group 20 district and a lack of volunteers and declining public interest in local football in the area.

“It’s been a tough year,” he said.

“The coach [this year] is good, Kane Hammond.

“But I don’t know how we’re gonna be next year.”

Hart, who is approaching 70 years of age, was forced to step into the presidency role in 2023 after the club was at risk of folding earlier in the year.

“I came back this year to save the club,” he said.

“I’ve been here for 42 years.

“But, I don’t know how we’re gonna survive.”

The week prior to Battlers For Bush Footy’s visit, the club had suffered a 36-20 defeat to fellow Group 20 strugglers Hay, with Hart pinpointing a lack of available players as the biggest reason for the loss.

“We had 10 out [injured] on the weekend, we played with 13 against Hay,” Hart said.

“It was 12-all at half time, but because we haven’t got Reserve Grade, we haven’t got backup.

“That’s the biggest trouble for Yanco this year.”

Hart also spoke of the increasing trouble the club has had with injury this season, a theme that has been common across all clubs in 2023.

“We’ve also had injuries, not minor injuries but major injuries,” he said.

“[For example] Elwyn [Ravu, Hawks hooker] did his knee.

“Will Kelly got injured in the game [against West Wyalong].

“Brenton George and Matthew Goodwill are out as well.

“Billy Ingram is the only forward from our best forward pack that we have left.”

An outspoken bush footy battler who stands up when needed, Hart offered a few suggestions which may improve the Group 20 competition moving forward into the future, with a key aspect of his ideas surrounding promotion of the game and moving with the changing times.

“The biggest problem is getting people to the football,” he said, something that was evidenced by the crowd of only around 100 at the game.

“The committee is too old fashioned.

“We need to also look at bringing in tackle football for ladies.

“Girls that don’t want to play tackle can play League Tag.”

Although the second idea is perhaps difficult to achieve at the moment with the female game still in the growth phase, his idea of two open age female grades alongside the two for men has already been implemented in the Northern Rivers league.

In respect to the future of his club and the competition as a whole, Hart had this final ominous plea to the game’s administrators.

“Something has to be done quickly because if we wait two or three years, it may be too late.”

Another passionate Hawk, Yanco-Wamoon Captain-Coach Kane Hammond, said that despite the obvious challenges facing the club going forward, the camaraderie within the playing group is as good as ever.

“We are a tight-knit club,” the Hawks skipper said.

“We only have the league tag girls and the Senior boys.

“Each week both sides are scraping together and playing short, but in saying that we keep good morale and we do a lot together to keep the club going.”

However, much like Hart, Hammond is unsure of what the future holds for the smaller, struggling clubs of Group 20 (Hay, Lakes and Yanco), as the current trajectory of the league sees player numbers and competitiveness decrease year-on-year.

“There’s a top three sides, and then there’s a big gap towards the bottom 3,” Hammond said.

“Hay, they’ve sort of turned the corner and they’re going really well, they’re probably going to finish fifth, which is a massive achievement for them without Reserve Grade.

“Lakes are pretty strong in Reserve Grade.

“But for the survival of those bottom three clubs in the future, it is very difficult, because we are all fighting over the same players.

“And without the Junior Grades coming through, there’s is less money, there’s people through the gate, and really everything sort of drops off after that because we don’t have the Junior base.

“If the smaller clubs can build up a junior base well that will help them into the future.”

Aside from the speculation about the future, 150-game veteran Billy Ingram provides perhaps the best indication of what playing for Yanco is like.

“The club culture, it’s a small club, and everyone is friendly,” he said.

“Everyone shows up for each other.

“It’s been a hard year this year for us with injuries, we’re doing the best we can do.”

When it comes to country rugby league, clubs like Yanco-Wamoon are the foundations that the game was built upon, and to see the club in such trouble is genuinely frightening. Hopefully, the current crop of players stick around and keep the club going well into the future. 

But the club also needs new volunteers and players to survive. We encourage anyone in the Leeton/Yanco area to step up and join this extremely family-friendly club, and ensure Pat Hart’s 42 years of service to the Hawks was not in vain.

This weekend the club face Leeton in the local derby, and any support would go a long way to helping keep this proud and historic club on the field long into the future.

Because I don’t know about you, but I think the world is a lot better when we hear “Yippie-I-Ay, Yippie-I-Yo” from the Tough Hawks from Yanco.

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Note: Battlers For Bush Footy would like to thank Pat and Kym Hart for their kind hospitality at the Yanco-Wamoon v West Wyalong match, and for their continued support of our work.