The Harden Devils got a wake-up call on the weekend going down in a nail-biter to Cootamundra tricolours at Grace Oval, Wallendbeen. Coota has been on a successful recruitment drive and turned up with a much-changed, larger team. They jumped out of the blocks early crossing for two quick tries giving them a 12-0 start.
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The Devils were going nowhere until Jessy Redmond made a 40-metre run to score under the posts. The score at the break was 15-7.
After an inspirational talk from captain Clint Stevens at half-time the team went out ready to do battle and promptly let in a try. In the most controversial call of the day, Harden linesman, Devils old boy and stalwart, Mick Minehan raised his flag to the conversion as the ball drifted a good five yards outside the posts.
With the big Coota centres starting to tire Harden threw the ball wide. Appreciating a bit of space Ben Lenehan offloaded to Jack O’Connor to go under 15 wide of the posts. Ben quickly converted.
With the clock counting down, Coota were warned for time-wasting. The ball was then taken and spun wide. Redmond hit a hole at speed, stepped the winger untouched, drew the fullback and put Josh Quinn over, giving the Devils the lead.
Unfortunately the clearance kick from the following kick off didn’t make it out. Coota threw everything at Harden and after 20-odd phases, managed to go over next to the posts to seal a 27-26 win.
“We didn’t play with any intensity in the first half and really let Coota get on top. In the end we nearly, and probably should have, won the game but we didn’t deserve it,” Jack O’Connor said.
Injuries didn’t help the Devils’ cause. Jimmy Honour left the field with ankle ligament damage and leading try scorer Harry Sachs with season-ending knee ligament damage.
“Cootamundra handled the conditions better than us and deserved the win. The changes we had to make in the backline took a bit to cog but they put on some great tries when they did. In the end our defence, which has been really good, let us down today,” Coach Adam Walsh said.
The three points went to Ben Lenehan, two to James Wallace and one to Billy Bolger. The next game is at home to Condobolin on Saturday at Roberts Park.