Orange Hawks’ Group 10 finals hopes took a massive hit on Sunday afternoon, the two blues relinquished a 14-6 lead to ultimately suffer a 36-20 defeat at the hands of Lithgow Workies.
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Hawks didn’t use the strong wind to their advantage in the first half, whereas Lithgow did in the final 40 minutes, winning the second stanza 30-6 at Tony Luchetti Showground.
Although the two blues are still only three points adrift of fifth-placed Cowra – the Magpies lost to Bathurst St Pat’s on the weekend – they drop to seventh, and have been leapfrogged by the Lithgow side.
Mathematically, Hawks can still make the five, but with one less game shift up the task has become all the more difficult.
Along with having a bye Hawks do play Cowra and St Pat’s, both games captain-coach Willie Heta said his side will head into confident.
“We were confident going into this one (though),” he said.
“We just want to try and win those (last) two games and then see how we end up.”
The situation’s pretty much the same for Lithgow now too, if they’re to slide into fifth.
"We just got to keep winning... got to win all three, that's what it comes down to," Workies skipper Jono Van Veen said.
"I think we can do it but we need to play footy for 80 minutes against sides like St Pats, CYMS and Mudgee so we need to be better and I think we can be.
"We're confident of beating anyone. If we can play the kind of footy we know we can play we can beat anyone."
Workies were the first to score after six minutes.
Van Veen spun out of a weak tackle to score under the posts. Harry Bender’s conversion made it 6-0.
The Orange side hit back with two unconverted tries.
Hawks five-eighth Willie Heta dove on a loose ball to score in the 18th minute and the two blues took the lead ten minutes later as centre Jack Aumuller crashed over, making it 8-6.
Workies gained a one-man advantage on the half-hour mark as Hawks big man Sione Tongia was sent to the sin bin for a shoulder charge off the ball.
However the Hawks were the next to score in the 37th minute.
They kept the ball alive on the Workies line and second rower Max Wolfson found a hole in the defence to score.
Heta nailed the conversion to give the Hawks a 14-6 lead at the half-time break.
Lithgow started to reel their opponents in with a try to Eli Felton on the 44-minute mark but Hawks hit straight back through Sione Tongia.
Tongia took full advantage of his size and strength to barge over on the right edge and Heta’s conversion brought the score to 20-12.
The tide changed from then on as Workies made it 20-18 through a converted try to Mitch Case after 52 minutes.
Lithgow took the lead with 10 minutes to go as Brendon Van-Veen busted through the line and passed to Eli Felton to sprint over and score. Bender’s conversion made it 24-20.
The Van Veen connection sealed the win for Workies with three minutes left on the clock.
Jono Van Veen broke through the defence and dished the ball off to younger brother Brendon who beat a couple of defenders to score under the posts.
But Jono Van Veen wasn’t done yet as he left the Hawks defence for dead in the last minute.
He started on his heels but managed to beat a few defenders and carry two over the line to score his second try.
Bender made it six from six with the boot to complete the 16-point win.
"They used the wind a lot better than we did, we managed to clean up but it's always harder going 100 metres instead of playing 20 metres to the goal line like we wanted to,” Heta said.
“They deserved the points in the end. I thought our middles were pretty good … but like I said it's a lot harder carrying out of your own end instead of playing in the good ball areas like we want to."
- LITHGOW WORKIES 36 (Jono Van-Veen 2, Eli Felton 2, Mitch Case, Brendon Van-Veen tries; Harry Bender 6 goals) def ORANGE HAWKS 20 (Caleb Lewis, Jack Aumuller, Max Wolfson, Sione Tongia tries; Willie Heta 2 goals)