The North Canberra Bears produced a gritty defensive display to oust the defending Premiers, The Harden Hawks from this years George Tooke Shield Title race last weekend. The Bears showed great resilience to win a thriller 15-12 and will now take on the Crookwell Green Devils this Saturday for the Premiership crown. It’s an opportunity for redemption for Crookwell who lost a heart breaker in last years decider by four points to Harden.
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Crookwell will start the hot favourites in the grand final having lost just one game this season back in early May to Harden. Since then, they have been virtually unstoppable with a relentless forward pack paving the way for a very slick backline.
The two sides have clashed twice this season with Crookwell winning the first round clash 30-18, whilst the second round saw the Green Devils demolish the Bears 54-16. Grand Finals are unpredictable beasts and the Bears will go into the match on a roll after surviving two sudden death matches in the last two weeks overcoming Boorowa and then Harden on Saturday. Crookwell on the other hand, have had little more than a training run in the past three weeks easily accounting for Harden in the major semi final.
The key for the Bears will be in containing the Green Devils rampaging attack. North Canberra can score plenty of points themselves but if they let in early tries, it could be a bloodbath. It’s hard to see anything but a Crookwell win here in front of a parochial home crowd but expect the Bears to stay in the contest for a long way. Bookies tip – Crookwell by 16.
The combined Harden/Boorowa youth league team continues to defy the odds this year storming into a grand final decider after defeating North Canberra 24-12. The locals got out to an early lead and were never headed, looking very impressive ahead of this week’s big one.
The Youth league grand final could well be the closest and most entertaining match of the day between the Combined Harden/Boorowa and the Yass Magpies. The Magpies will start slight favourites purely on the back of their major semi final win over the local team two weeks ago. Little has separated the teams in four clashes this year with Yass winning two matches to one. The other game was an epic encounter that saw a 16-16 draw after Harden/Boorowa trailed by 16-0. The local team has show tremendous courage all year and have formed into a tight unit after a slow start to the season. Bookies Tip – Harden/Boorowa by 4.
In the league tag, the Harden Hawkettes should be well rested and prepared for Bungendore who defeated Crookwell convincingly last week. This should also be a tight encounter and it may well be the fresher legs that gets the Hawkettes home who will be keen to reverse the result of last years decider: Bookies Tip – Harden by two.
Full results from last weekends preliminary finals were:
- Youth League: Harden/Boorowa 24 defeated North Canberra 12
- League Tag: Bungendore 32 defeated Crookwell 8
- George Tooke Shield: North Canberra 15 defeated Harden 12
The full program for this Saturday at Crookwell is:
- 11.45 am Youth league Grand Final : Yass vs Harden/Boorowa
- 1.20 pm League Tag Grand Final: Harden vs Bungendore
- 2.45 pm George Tooke Shield Grand Final: Crookwell vs North Canberra
It should be a fantastic day of local league so why not head down to Crookwell and enjoy all the atmosphere and action.
Don’t forget the Local presentation night on Saturday, September 22 at the Ex-Services Club with tickets available at the door at 6pm. The night will include a band after the formalities and will be a great way to round out an awesome season.
