INVERELL Hawks’ committee members were thrilled with the size of the large Anzac crowd that attended Saturday’s game against the Ashford Roosters at Varley Oval.
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Club president Gary Lavender estimated about 2000 people came to watch the Hawks down the Roosters 52-10, and said it was comparable to a semi-finals match.
“It was a massive crowd, well supported and good to see. It was a real family atmosphere and great weather, too,” Lavender said.
“It was a great win for us in three grades. Unfortunately we missed out on the League Tag, but the Ashford girls are a pretty gun side. We were happy with the results and we’ll move forward from there.”
The League Tag games commenced at the later time of 1.30pm.
Lavender said the Anzac ceremony before the A grade match saw Chris Reeves deliver The Ode and bugler Lee Evans play the last post. Afghanistan veteran Keenan Shepherd handed out the jerseys to the A grade players prior to the game, which kicked off about 5pm and was partly played under lights.
Lavender said the Hawks defence was too good for the Roosters.
“It was a bit of an arm wrestle for the first 10 or 15 minutes, then we started to put things together and off we went,” Lavender said.
“They couldn’t go through us. Our defence was pretty well on the mark.
“The only way they got round us was chipping over the top, but our defence was A-1.”
Roosters’ president Mick Lewis thought the crowd was the biggest he had seen at Varley Oval for many, many years, and agreed it was about the size of a semi-final crowd. He congratulated the Hawks on everything they did that centred on the Anzac Day theme.
“I congratulate them on their win. They’re very well coached, they’re playing a controlled game, and I reckon they played it exactly to their plan,” Lewis said.
“Inverell played impressive football and it’s probably one of the most outstanding displays I’ve seen in Group 19 since I’ve been involved.”
Lewis said the Roosters had only about 30 per cent possession, and that played a big part in their defeat.
“We just turned possession over early in the tackle counts. We just made too many mistakes, and that came from having a run of three fairly ‘soft’ games,” Lewis said.
“We were taking too many chances that just weren’t coming off.”