Having secured a return to Premier League with a minor premiership win, the Hawkesbury Mavericks went into today's game with nothing to play for aside from pride. Their opposition, this season's real surprise packet in Geelong, had everything to play for and everything to lose.

Hawkesbury Mavericks Geelong Bengals
1 Jaco Van Der Westhuyzen 1 Dwayne Alvarez
2 Matthew Rieck 2 David Razzle
3 Joe Roff 3 Nathan Grey
4 Tevita Vaikona 4 Tony Gonzalez
5 Jamie Ainscough 5 Wes Patten
6 Adam Dykes 6 Tim Donnelly
7 Gordon Ross 7 Kit Walker
8 Bill Young 8 Mauro Bergamasco
9 Paul Khan 9 Tony Grimaldi
10 Adam Woolnough 10 Warren Jowitt
11 Shane Rodney 11 Tristan Davies
12 Brendan Dean 12 Takuro Miuchi
13 Inoke Ratudina © 13 Travis Norton ©
++Interchange
14 Ben Ross 14 Agustin Pichot
15 Fa'amanu Asoava 15 Vea Ofu
16 Luke Swain 16 Justin Morgan
17 Steve Turner 17 Trent Salkeld

Geelong got the game underway from the boot of inspirational five eighth Tim Donnelly, but the opening of the game wasn't the fireworks fans were expecting. Handling errors in the first ten minutes highlighted how nervous the Bengals were, whilst perhaps Hawkesbury were guilty of arrogantly throwing the ball around in search of easy points. They did come, and early, with Adam Woolnough choosing to dive from dummy half on the fifth tackle. The video referee had to look at it for a few minutes, but eventual ruled that the big prop had managed to ground the ball despite the attentions of Tristan Davies. Surprisingly, Gordon Ross missed a relatively easy conversion, but his side held a handy 4-0 lead.

Geelong were denied their chance to hit back in the 11th minute, when Travis Norton sold a brilliant dummy to Brendan Dean to apparently score a soft try. However, a somewhat unfair call ruled that Dean had been obstructed by the decoy run of Tony Grimaldi, and the try was not allowed. Geelong were again denied, this time legitimately, in the thirteenth minute- when Justin Morgan dropped the ball cold under a heavy hit from Bill Young.

The game continued to flow in this vein, with both sides improving as they got their nerves under control and focussed on the task at hand. Both sides produced some promising offence in patches, but were continually victims of their own mistakes. The 26th minute saw a classic example of this, Gordon Ross denied a try after he stupidly tried to ground a Paul Khan grubber with one hand- knocking it on in the process.

Halftime was only two seconds away when Geelong scored their first ever finals try, and it was electric. Some outstanding forward work by the Bengals' underrated pack got them into Hawkesbury's twenty- where Tim Donnelly hefted an immense bomb that had Jaco Van Der Westhuyzen dancing as it swirled in the breeze. In a piece of real individual brilliance, Donnelly soared above the opposing fullback to collect his own bomb and score a magnificent try. As halftime sounded, the hero converted his own effort to see Geelong surprise 6-4 leaders.

HALFTIME: Hawkesbury 4 trail Geelong 6

Hawkesbury were denied a chance to reclaim the lead early in the second half, the video referee again called to make a decision when Luke Swain was the man to get a hand to a ball kicking into the in goal by Adam Dykes. The video referee wasn't given an easy task, having to eventually rule that the ball had been projected forward by Tevita Vaikona only milliseconds before Swain got a hand onto it. Despite this, the Mavericks were back on level footing in the 42nd, when Gordon Ross converted a penalty to level things at 6 apiece.

It really was a messy affair as the two sides fought tooth and nail for every inch of ground they could get. Whether they were dropping it could or throwing blatantly forward passes, neither side seemed to want to win the game. Sure, the inclination was there, but the execution was way off. Indeed, when Fa'amanu Asoava crossed on the back of his own powerful run, it looked like the game could be well and truly sealed. Gordon Ross' inability to convert kept the game open however, with the Bengals still in it at 10-6 down.

With just ten minutes remaining in the game, it looked as if the next try could very well blow the game right open. If Hawkesbury could convert their possession into points, they'd be handy 14-6 winners, at worst. If the Bengals could score, they'd have a shot at goal to steal a 12-10 victory. The 71st minute provided a chance for the Bengals to do just that, when Tony Grimaldi took a quick tap and ran ten metres to score the most basic of tries. Hawkesbury's Brian Randell was fuming at the referee's decision to award the try, claiming that the mark hadn't been set when Grimaldi took the tap. The fickle Gods of football prevailed however, with Donnelly missing a relatively easy conversion to leave things locked up at 10 all with minutes remaining.

Rookie halfback Kit Walker broke the deadlock with only six minutes remaining, the youngest Walker brother nailing a field goal from twenty out to turn it into an 11-10 lead for the visitors. There was that magical feeling in the air that you always get when an underdog sides looks like causing a major upset. Still, the Mavericks fought for their right to a week off, so much so that Jamie Ainscough was sin binned in the 77th minute for a sneaky punch on Kit Walker that almost sparked a brawl. Tim Donnelly was able to put the game all but beyond doubt with the resulting penalty leaving it at 13-10.

That was how it remained, although Joe Roff put a scare into Geelong's fans when he made a bust on fulltime. With it the last tackle of both the set and the game, Roff kicked ahead for himself, but the ball was safely escorted over the sideline by young gun, Trent Salkeld.

FULLTIME

Geelong Bengals 13
Tony Grimaldi
Tim Donnelly
Donnelly 2/3
Walker 1 fg

defeated

Hawkesbury Mavericks 10
Fa'amanu Asoava
Adam Woolnough
Ross 1/3

PoM Points
Jamie Ainscough...............3
Vea Ofu...........................2
Fa'amanu Asoava.............1

Stats
Penalty Count
Hawkesbury Mavericks- 1 : 6 -Geelong Bengals

Possession (%)
Hawkesbury Mavericks- 49 : 50 -Geelong Bengals

Time in Opposition Half
Hawkesbury Mavericks- 38 : 42 -Geelong Bengals

Handling Errors
Hawkesbury Mavericks- 25 : 23 -Geelong Bengals

Completion Rate (%)
Hawkesbury Mavericks- 46 : 50 -Geelong Bengals

Tackles
Hawkesbury Mavericks- 217 : 202 -Geelong Bengals

It'salways dissapointing to lose a game your supposed to win, but we'll try and pick things up next week against canberra, either way it has been an impressive year and we are still going to Premier League. To the Bengals good game you boys gritted it out till the end where we have been know to win them this year. Changes will be made and players may find themselves on the bench next week.

thanks randy! good game, bro! see ya at the GF hehe.