The top four of the old South West comp as they called it back in the day, or the South West Fuels Sponsorship named competition is taking a familiar turn, with the four sides geographically close to each other, starting to take shape towards the end of the year and some close scores putting scares through teams who thought they might finish here or there on the ladder.
Coota hosted Harden and what looked like footy trench warfare ensued with both sides unwilling to give an inch.
At home, Coota held their old boys day and their 20 year reunion for their 2006 premiership.
Funnily enough, Harden also won a premiership in 2006, but against Goulburn in the Monaro competition, before retiring some years later to South West.
Jack Hogan Co-Coach of the Tri Colours said, “We had a very decisive win against the Harden Red Devils on Saturday. It was nice. It was also Old Boys Day and the 20 Year Reunion. It was a huge crowd and it was awesome.
“I reckon you would have called the game a real 50-50 arm wrestle probably the 1st 37 minutes, I suppose.
“It was just back and forth and super tight and super close and we defended probably a little bit more than they did and just held them out. I think we held them up once defending on our line a bit, but managed to hold them out and then it wasn’t till a couple of minutes to go that we sort of took our chance and the backs got them, they were short for numbers on the wing and then Jack Hall scored in the corner on half time and he kicked the goal too. We went into the sheds at 7 nil.
“At half time it was be patient when we’ve got the ball and sort of keeping them tight. I think we were probably trying to go a bit wide, bit too wide, like we were with Boorowa, which worked well with Boorowa, but then Harden are obviously a pretty mobile side.
“So we just keep it tight and be patient, was the two main things I tried to get across.
“We came back out there and I’m pretty sure we scored again and it was 12-nil, and then Harden scored making it 7-12. And she was a fair old grind, we just tackled, tackled, tackled again and we scored there late in the second half to seal the deal.
“The final score was 19-7.
“It was a tough game. Harden had some injuries. Charlie Brown went down with his knee. He was pretty upset about that and they have big shoes to fill I suppose, and so that sort of helped us a bit and Joe Stewart got knocked out there after the second half.
“Luck went our way in that regards, I suppose, but still, we had the gutsy effort to get there anyway.
“We have knocked off Boorowa and Harden, who are two teams that were above us. I think we’re a mathematical chance of coming 2nd this weekend, but I think Grenfell has got to beat Harden by 10 and we’ve got to beat West Wyalong by 70 or something. I dare say we’ll be coming third going into finals with Boorowa one and Harden two.
“I’m pretty sure Yabbies played Condo, but Condo lost, so it will be your typical four town final series.
“This weekend is our last game and we go out to West Wyalong and then straight into semis.
“We hopefully should be able to rest a few, the boys had a few niggles this weekend and we’ve got plenty of depth, and to go into finals with depth is just awesome.
“Fingers crossed we can get away this weekend with as little injuries as possible and go into that first semi with a really strong 25 players.
