BOTH of the talents selected out of the Broken Hill Women’s Football competition further enhanced their credentials at the South Australian Country Football Championships held in Port Pirie from last Friday, July 11 to Saturday evening, July 12.
“Elsie (Dawes) played in the midfielder across the breadth on the weekend with a couple of small stints up forward,” Northern Women’s coach Riley Sanders explained.
“Her leadership was fantastic and the way she helped the younger players in the group was outstanding.
“She was consistent performer across all three of the games.
“Elsie’s strength as a player was her ability to read the ball and know where to be.
“I only found out Clare (Hardy) was still in her mid-teens when she arrived at the tournament.
“She’s a raw and athletic footballer but has immense talent and lot and lots of upside.
“She stayed on the wing across the weekend, with just a couple of rests on the bench.
“For her age she is such an exciting a prospect.
“Clare was among our leading players in the Northern Zone player of the championships count, just behind our goal kicking forward and fellow Team of the Year selection Tamika Reid.”
Playing for the Northern Zone side, which included players from Port Augusta and Whyalla, Dawes and Hardy wore numbers 13 and 14 respectively.
Hardy, just 16 years old and still in the embryonic stages of her career, won selection in the SA Country Championships, Team of the Champs.
She was picked to play on a wing, gaining rave reviews from all that saw her perform.
The opening game for the girls was an early evening match on Friday night under lights.
The Northern Zone, in a contest of two halves, lost 7.4 (46) to 4.2 (26) after the scores were level at the half time break.
Dawes, playing in the midfield, was high in the best players in this contest.
In the second game, played in perfect conditions on Saturday morning, the South East Zone, defeated Northern 6.4 (40) to 3.2 (20), after one goal separated the teams at the break on the Pirie West Oval.
Hardy, playing on the wing and Dawes were the best two players for Northern in this match.
Their final game was at 5.45pm on Saturday evening after the SANFL match between North and South Adelaide on the main stage at Memorial Oval.
Northern let Southern get off to a flyer in this contest, conceding five first half goals to nil and going down by a large margin, 10.9 (69) to 3.0 (18)
Despite the large defeat, both Dawes and Hardy were among the leading performers in this clash as well.
