ORANGE Hawks advanced to the Group 10 under 18 rugby league grand final after defeating Lithgow 30-18 at Glen Willow Stadium in Mudgee on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The two blues finished on top of the competition having only lost one match all season, and they showed it would take a well-drilled side to deny them a premiership in two weeks’ time.
Co-coach Lawrence Fogg was ecstatic to have qualified for the September 14 decider.
“It’s unreal. Only to lose one game, I think it is really good. The week off should be good for us and we should roll through. Hopefully we get the money,” Fogg said.
His offsider Jared Brodrick said it wasn’t the usual high-quality performance by his troops.
“We started well but then we got too excited and tried to throw it around a bit too much,” Brodrick said.
“We sort of keep teams hanging in there and give them chances more times than what we should.”
Lithgow could not capitalise on those chances and coach Ross Harrington wasn’t too pleased, especially with his team’s defence.
“We haven’t missed tackles liked that all year,” Harrington said.
“Our defence was fairly ordinary and our structure wasn’t too good. We will have to go back to the drawing board.”
Hawks started well when they scored in the third minute through Glen Maxwell and Jye Barrow’s conversion made it 6-0.
As he did last week against Cowra, Lithgow winger Joel Gurney scored a length-of-the-field intercept try to put his team back on terms.
A few minutes later, Hawks had their lead back when Barrow scored and converted his own try.
Just prior to half-time, the Orange club made it 16-6 when fullback Jedd Kennedy scored a brilliant individual try.
Four minutes after the break, Lithgow closed the gap to four points when Wayde Egan scored.
But each time Lithgow would get within striking distance of Hawks, the minor premiers would get away.
Orange scored a fourth try when Steve Khattar scored a length-of-the-field try for a 22-12 lead.
It soon blew out to 28-12 with Kennedy’s second.
Kennedy then turned provider but unfortunately for Lithgow. His knock-on in goal led to his opposite number Nathan Redding diving on the loose ball for a 28-18 score line with 10 minutes to go.
Lithgow was getting restless as Hawks continued to hold them out.
A Barrow penalty goal after the full-time siren completed the scoring.
ORANGE HAWKS 30 (Jedd Kennedy 2, Glen Maxwell, Steve Khattar, Jye Barrow tries; Barrow 5 goals) def LITHGOW WORKIES 18 (Nathan Redding, Joel Gurney, Wayde Egan tries; Gurney 3 goals).