Typically, Orange Hawks captain-coach Willie Heta is composed and controlled when fronting the media after a game, regardless of the result – but not so much at Wade Park last weekend.
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Although he was still as calm and eloquent as ever he, put simply, was absolutely gutted.
The emotion showed on Heta’s face because, despite his side’s best efforts to claw it back, the two blues had blown a 12-point lead to eventually be beaten 38-22 by Bathurst Panthers in Sunday’s Group 10 premier league preliminary final.
The loss brought an end to the two blues’ 2018 campaign, one which at many times this year looked so likely to end with Heta hoisting the trophy on grand final day.
“I’m not sure what to say here, I’m a little bit lost for words, it’s gutting,” Heta admitted.
“I don’t know, we let it slip away from us.”
Once he gathered his thoughts a bit more Heta put the defeat down to “ordinary options”, the two blues led 16-4 early and then 16-12 at half-time before Panthers ran away with it in the second half.
“I don’t want to take too much, if anything, away from Panthers because it was a big effort from them, but we didn’t control the game,” Heta said.
“We took some really ordinary options at times and we made a lot of mistakes we shouldn’t have.
“It is disappointing, especially because it was at home. Panthers took control and we couldn’t get it back.”
With Heta already committing to a contract extension earlier in the season and a number of other big names rumoured to be staying on too, the future still looks bright for the two blues.
Heta said as much too.
“We had a tough time in that first season and we’ve got a lot better this year. It hasn’t ended how we wanted, but it’s something we can build from for sure,” he said, heaping praise on Kyle Byrnes in particular.
“We’re hurting now but I think we’ll try and use this feeling to spur us on next season, I don’t think there’s anyone hurting as much as Byrnesy though, Panthers being his old club obviously.
“He was massive for us this year. He gave us a really experienced head in the middle, I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
- BATHURST PANTHERS 38 (Kade Barrow 2, Blake Seager 2, Nick Loader, Andrew Mendes, Blake Hewitt tries; Hewitt 2, Willie Wright goals; Wright, Hewitt penalty goals) def ORANGE HAWKS 22 (Talon Hodge, Saul Houma, Glen Maxwell, Corey Brown tries; Willie Heta 3 goals)
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
