The Harden Hawkettes have lost the 2015 George Tooke Shield League Tag Grand Final 8-10 to rivals Bungendore Tigerettes on Saturday afternoon.
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Played at Mick Sherd Oval in Bungendore, Jason Pollard and his team had a lot of support with a large contingent of Harden supporters all decked out in maroon and pink making up a large proportion of all supporters on the eastern wing of the ground.
Unfortunately the team from the twin towns couldn’t quite get the job done in the end and the home team got the job in a tight low scoring encounter amid some controversy in the second half.
The Hawkettes with the wind at their backs did most of the attacking early on in the game, but it was the home team who drew first blood scoring the first try of the match in the 15th minute of the match when they crossed over and converted for a crucial six point play.
Keen to stay in touch the visitors scored literally a minute later through Emma James who got on the end of some good work from her teammates, and a tough conversion chance ensued, but went unsuccessfull.
At half time the Hawkettes were down 4-6 but were committed to the cause.
Early on in the second half the pace and the pressure of the match went up a few notches and as a result both teams put down a few passes which were too hot to handle.
Harden’s Grace Smith scored the next try of the match which again went unconverted and at 8-6 with plenty of petrol left in the tank the favourites looked set to stamp their authority on the contest and they did just that with ten minutes left on the clock when Emma Manwaring went over for what seemed a very straight forward try but became a contentious decision.
One of the touch judges deemed that Manwaring had received a forward pass and the lucky break gave the Tigers a sniff to stay in the hunt.
A costly knock on at the 20th minute mark of the second half meant that with five minutes left in the game, Tigerette Kody-Leigh Hirst found space just moments later to find the line and put her team up 10-8 with just five minutes remaining in the Grand Final.
By the time the unsuccessful conversion attempt was completed, the Hawkettes only had three minutes left to pull something out of the bag and further to this they went back to the middle for another six tags to the Tigerettes.
The Harden girls got the ball back with a minute left and they passed the ball around frantically in a nail biting finish. A chip kick was put in but Hirst took the ball cleanly and held on until the siren giving her team a two point win.
Jess O’Rourke for Bungendore was declared the player of the match.
All the Harden girls performed admirably throughout the clash and they can consider themselves unlucky after being the best side for the majority of the season in which they lost only three games one of them being the finale.