SWFL: Hawks inaugural women’s side fall short in first game as the men overrun Eaton in big second half

Augusta-Margaret River’s women’s coach Damian Drake-Brockman was proud of his team despite a seven-point loss to Eaton in their first-ever South West Football League game last Saturday. “Everyone loved the experience and the game and we are now itching for this week, so far at training we’ve put into practice what we learnt already,” Drake Brockman said. “There was a lot of hype which has been great and we’ve embraced it, but now to get that out of the way so we can just focus on getting better and just play good footy every week.” The Hawks were unable to quell Eaton forward Tanisha Anderson, who kicked all three of her side’s goals to win 3.3 (21) to 2.2 (14). Annabelle Jones kicked a major midway through the third quarter to bring the margin to a solitary point, but it was Anderson’s third goal in the last quarter that pulled the Boomers over the line. It doesn’t get any easier with the side coming up against last year’s grand finalists in Donnybrook at home this Saturday at 1pm. * Led by last year’s Hayward medallist Jed Spence, the Hawks stormed past Eaton in a warm league encounter. Head coach Blake Anderson was happy after a long pre-season the side came out firing. “Everything that we were hoping from the team, they delivered,” Anderson said. “The level of effort and intensity the boys brought was really pleasing see.” Kaspa Donovan and Jake Rodgers both gave Spence a hand in the middle, with the trio providing the side with clean ball use all over the ground. After taking down the biggest recruit in the competition Marlion Pickett, the Hawks will now turn their attention to Donnybrook with WAFL stalwart Cody Leggett at the helm as player-coach, starting at 2.30pm on Saturday at home.