Round 3 - Sunday April 26, 2009
Riverina Football Netball League
Venue: Gumly Oval 2.10pm
Umpires: ---
Eastern Hawks ... 1.3 .. 2.7 .. 3.9 .. 8.10 (58) 
Griffith ................ 2.0 .. 4.2 .. 6.6 .. 12.7 (79)
GRIFFITH: Royce Johns, Simon Spiers, Andrew Cappello; Myles Bunn, Matthew Kenny, David Pasin; Jonathon Gastin, Michael Johns, Ben Ford; Dean Crack, Matthew Noonan, James Nancarrow; Michael Duncan, Aaron Cocks, Rodney Simpkin; Michael Harris, Jeff Mickan, Brett Owen; Kris Duncan, James Fallon, Luke Piccolo 
GOALS
Eastern Hawks: C Pedler 2, R O'Loughlin, B Mannion, N Scott, M Adams, R Campbell, T Harradine 
Griffith: A Cocks 5, R Simpkin 2, J Gastin 2, M Duncan, D Crack, B Owen 
BEST PLAYERS
Eastern Hawks: M Adams, B Roberts, J Scott, B Mannion, C Pedler, C De Piazza 
Griffith: B Owen, S Spiers, M Duncan, M Harris, A Cappello, A Cocks 

A summary of match report, with thanks
Eastern Hawks' season went from bad to worse yesterday after failing to Griffith by 21 points at Gumly Oval.

With injured stars Ben Perkins, Eddie Whyman and Steven Crowhurst all watching on, the Hawks had their chances but succumbed to their third straight loss, 12.7 (79) to 8/10 (58). While the Hawks were undermanned, Griffith had several key players out too but, in the end, had too much polish for the struggling Hawks. Mick Duncan and Brett Owen controlled midfield for Griffith while full-forward Aaron Cocks was the destructive on his way to a five-goal haul.

The Hawks showed plenty of grit and closed within three points of an unlikely win midway through the final term. But Griffith responded with four of the next five goals to seal the four points to keep the Swans in the top five early on in the season.

Griffith coach Gerard Toscan was happy to see his team respond to the Hawks' challenge deep in the last quarter. "I was really impressed with the way we found another gear when we needed to with 10 minutes to go," Toscan said.

"To the guy's credit they fought back, and Mick Duncan really turned it on in the last 10 minutes. "When we had to dig deep, Mick dug deepest and really got us over the line in the last quarter." 
Having scored two wins in Wagga from two attempts this season, Griffith is slowly on the way to improving its reputation as bad travellers. Toscan recognises yesterday's win was a start but hopes bigger scalps are to come. "We know about our record over here and we talk about it," Toscan said. "I'm happy we've got these two but they're only the two wins we got last year.

"What we'd really like is to beat Turvey Park or Tigers over here. "We need these ones, but we really want the other ones." On a disappointing day for the Hawks, new recruits Brad Mannion and Trevor Harradine performed well along with Mark Adams who battled hard all day.

(By Matt Malone - The Area News, Monday April 27, 2009).

OTHER MATCHES - SAT: Turvey Park 14.7 (91) def Wagga 2.8 (20); SUN: Ganmain-GGM 12.17 (89) def Narrandera 7.3 (45), Leeton-Whitton 7.5 (47) def by Mangoplah-CUE 8.5 (53), North Wagga 5.8 (38) def by Coolamon 17.8 (110).

Reserves: Eastern Hawks 9.1 (55) def Griffith 4.8 (32)
Goals: C Moore, H Shaw, C Harrison 
Best players: H Shaw, L Catanzariti, C Harrison, G Taylor, M Tyndall
Under 17: Eastern Hawks 11.9 (75) def Griffith 2.2 (14)
Goals: C Moore, J Parr   
Best players: C Moore, B McRae, H Porter, C Burge, B Ciscato, F Bruton