Yanco-Wamoon coach Simon Watson has challenged the Hawks to break their habit of conceding cheap penalties at the Paul Kelly Memorial Shield Knockout finals at EW Moore Oval on Saturday.
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The Hawks finished the pool stage undefeated and join Yenda, Griffith Black and White Panthers and Leeton in the semi-finals.
Watson is delighted the Hawks have progressed to the second week but admits their performances were far from perfect last Sunday.
“We were doing that thing we did last year in piggybacking sides by linking penalties,” Watson said.
“All of a sudden you’re doing 14, 16, sometimes 18 tackles in a row.
“All you end up doing is stuffing yourself.
“We really need to start improving our discipline.”
The Hawks take on the rejuvenated Black and Whites in their semi-final, and Watson is wary of the threat posed by last season’s wooden spooners.
“It looks like Milney (Black and Whites coach David Milne) has got Black and Whites going all right,” he said.
“But we’re pretty confident.
“I see no reason why we can’t beat them if we can stick to our structure.”
Even if they don’t, Watson said there were plenty of positives to take from their matches in the pool stage.
“It was pretty good for a first hit-out,” he said.
“A couple of weeks earlier we had to forfeit a trial against Group Nine club Brothers, so for a first-up performance I was pretty happy.
“We were a bit scrappy. Like every team there were a lot of basic errors, but we’ll go out and try and rectify that this week.”
Paul Kelly Memorial Shield finals draw
2.30pm: under 16s – TLU v Leeton
3.20pm: under 16s – Yenda v Hay
4.10pm: seniors – Yenda v Leeton
5pm: seniors – Yanco-Wamoon v Black & Whites
5.50pm: under 16s final
6.40pm: under 18s final – Yanco-Wamoon v Yenda/TLU
7.30pm: seniors final
