Yanco-Wamoon found out life without Glenn Dumbrell isn’t that bad on Sunday as the Hawks registered a 26-18 win over reigning premier Tullibigeal-Lakes United.
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The Hawks were Dumbrell-less with Troy also missing the clash but it didn’t slow the side in the five tries to four victory.
Yanco-Wamoon’s Nick Puntoriero – who is filling in as captain-coach in Dumbrell’s absence – was thrilled with the way his side responded.
“We are very happy,” Puntoriero said after the match.
“We were happy with the week that we had last week and we came out here and showed a bit of pride.”
The result handed TLU its first loss of the 2017 Group 20 season and was a morale-boosting one for the Hawks.
“We gain a lot of confidence out of today,” Puntoriero said.
“Micheal Thomas filled in for his [Dumbrell’s] job and did well.
“We are just going to try and keep taking confidence out of each game and hopefully we can get better and better.”
Thomas snared a try in his promotion to the top grade while Codey Parsons, Jarred Muller-Dobbe, Shannon Bradbrook and Kieren Cates scored the other four-pointers for the Hawks.
For the Sharks – who were missing Ethan Williams and Nathan Morris amongst others – Michael Mitchell, Jarrod Cahill, Robbie Simpson and Jared Carruthers crossed.
Puntoriero always expected the clash to be a tight one.
“The game went the way we thought,” he said.
“I thought it would be an arm wrestle all day and we had to turn up today to beat these fellas.
“We just had really good attitude and turned up willing to play and just went forward and had good line speed in our defence.”
Puntoriero thought every player performed well but paid special tribute to two players.
“Micheal Thomas, he was really good filling in Glenn's shoes, Shannon Bradbrook had a good game and the forwards did a great job as well,” Puntoriero said.