THEY’VE showed glimpses of their potential all season and on Sunday Orange Hawks’ youth proved the difference in a strange but entertaining 38-32 victory over Lithgow Workies at Wade Park.
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Fullback Jedd Kennedy scored three tries while halfback Brodie Christopherson was all class, laying on four of the two blues’ seven tries and booting five goals to help stave off a determined Workies outfit and chalk up win number one for the 2016 season with some bizarre play.
The ball was spilled off the kick-off on five occasions - both teams were guilty of that - the ball didn’t find touch after penalties, there was one-on-one strips, a 40-20, one of the few drop-outs in the match was a 60-metre bomb that found touch and there were 14 tries - the strangest belonging to Lithgow behemoth Brendon West who plucked a Kyle Robbins kick out of the thin air and raced his 110-kilogram frame 70 metres virtually untouched.
“I can’t explain it, but a win’s a win,” a relieved Orange Hawks captain-coach Jason Gangaram said.
“I haven’t paced that much in my life ... I was walking back and forth and saying to the boys, this is more stressful than going down by 50.
“To be honest, we’ve played games before where we’ve lost but played better than we did today.
“A win’s a win, but we still need more work.”
Spritely two blues winger Jordan Baker opened the scoring for the match, diving on a pin-point Christopherson kick - the half’s successful conversion attempt giving the hosts a 6-0 lead after seven minutes.
Harry Bender scored shortly after for Workies before Kennedy crossed for Hawks soon after.
The game progressed in that manner for the opening 40 minutes, with West bagging a double to go along with a try from the returning Brendon Van Veen while Kennedy found the line a second time and Baker also secured a brace after latching on to a Viane Falaniko off-load close to the line
At 20-all at the break, neither side had obviously assumed any ascendency out of the opening 40 minutes and it wasn’t really until mid-way through the second term either team did.
The tiny but vocal two blues contingent in the crowd were just lucky it was Hawks who did.
After Lithgow threatened to nab the momentum with tries to Steve Slaven and Nathan McAndrew, Hawks soared with tries to Kennedy, his third, Falaniko, after a stunning James Tedesco-like tap pass from Christopherson, and skipper Max Wolfson, with Christopherson nailing all three conversions to send his side to a 38-28 lead with 12 minutes remaining.
A constant threat all game, Jono Van Veen landed a 40-20 kick and then scored off the next set with nine minutes to go but he missed the conversion attempt, a trend which ultimately proved telling - he kicked just two from seven all game.
Hawks held on, defending gallantly throughout the second half.
“I think the boys were hungry for a win,” Gangaram said.
“They realised how close it was and this is a game that they didn’t want to lose. Just that fact, they lifted so much more.
“We leaked 32 points and defended awesomely on our own line. They had a few cracks at us. It’s good that they’re willing to turn up for each other.”
ORANGE HAWKS 38 (Jedd Kennedy 3, Jordan Baker 2, Max Wolfson, Viane Falaniko tries; Brodie Christopherson 5 goals) def LITHGOW WORKIES 32 (Brendon West 2, Jono Van Veen, Brendon Van Veen, Steve Slaven, Nathan McAndrew, Harry Bender tries; Jono Van Veen 2 goals)
