HORNETS SOAKING UP GRAND FINAL BREAKTHROUGH – BUT THE JOB’S NOT DONE
Qualifying for the club’s first Pat Smith Trophy Challenge in a decade – on top of their Canterbury Cup side also reaching the decider – and ending Linwood Keas’ quest for a 10th straight grand final, it’s already been a watershed season for Halswell Hornets.
After getting past the bogey of three consecutive preliminary final exits, Hornets coach Ray Hubbard reveals the mood around the club is a mixture of elation and relief ahead of Sunday’s CRL Happy Hire Grand Final Day showdown with Hornby Panthers at Ngā Puna Wai.
“It’s exciting times, it’s been somewhat of a journey running third two years in a row as assistant coach with Walt Wilson, then obviously running third last year [as head coach], so we’re certainly pleased to have made it through,” Hubbard says.
“[We’re] super excited. It’s been a process but we’ve been working really hard on our club culture and club unity, building up that connection to the club that we play for.
“To have two sides, our reserve grade and premiers, both playing on Grand Final Day speaks volumes to the work that’s been done across all facets of the club.”
While there may be a risk of resting on the laurels of their momentous 26-18 victory over the Keas – premiers in seven of the past eight seasons – at Linwood Park last weekend, Hubbard was determined to let his team revel in the achievement in the immediate aftermath.
Harnessing that enthusiasm shapes as a key part of Halswell’s grand final build-up.
“Saturday itself, after the game we were pretty chuffed and excited to get the result, and I think it was really important to allow the boys to soak it in and really enjoy the victory and the prospect of playing in a grand final,” the former Canterbury Bulls star asserts.
“For a lot of them it’s their first time in a GF, so you don’t want to smother that or take that away from them. I’ve left the boys to their own devices, though I was sending the boys stuff through Sunday and Monday to keep them engaged.
“When we train, we’ll train as a club but we’ll certainly be dialling in to make sure we make the most of the occasion ahead.”
The Hornets got off to a 3-0 flyer in April, including a 28-16 victory over the Panthers at Ngā Puna Wai, but were pegged back in an incredibly even CRL Whitehead Plumbing & Gas Men’s Premiership competition.
They lost four of their next five matches mid-season, while a 26-12 loss at Hornby in the penultimate round threatened their place in the finals. Ultimately, a last-minute Nick Evans try at home against Eastern Eagles snatched a 24-20 win – and third spot on the ladder – in their last regular season game.
A tense 14-8 elimination semi defeat of Riccarton Knights and the aforementioned upset of the Keas followed, presenting the Hornets with an opportunity to secure their first championship since beating Celebration Lions in the 2014 decider.
“It’s been a really awesome competition, through the middle of the year we had some really challenging games … where we were probably on the worse side of the results without actually playing too bad,” Hubbard explains.
“But we certainly identified areas where we were letting ourselves down in, and in the third round we got up for a big win against Riccarton on an important day. Then we went out to Leslie Park for [Hornby’s] Club Day and probably didn’t turn up the way we should, but the last three games – Eastern in the final round and the two semi-finals – we started to show a bit more determination and grit.
“Our senior players and leaders really stood up, so I think that result out at Hornby might have been a catalyst for a few guys to take some ownership.
“I still feel like we’ve got plenty under the hood. Obviously we want to be peaking for the weekend and if we can improve on what we’ve been doing, we’ll go really well. But I still feel there’s plenty of improvement in us as a team – and that’s exciting.
“It’s about the boys concentrating and being focused on doing the little things well. If they do that, everything will come off the back of that.”
On the surface, Hornby boast a few psychological edges: wins over Halswell in the 2021-23 preliminary finals as well as the two most recent derbies this season, plus a vast advantage in terms of grand final experience.
The Panthers are lining up in their eighth grand final in nine years – but Hubbard is unfazed by that discrepancy between the archrival clubs.
“They certainly know what it’s about, what it feels like and what it looks like on Grand Final Day, and I think that’s something will excite our guys – going their for the first time.
“Maybe that comes for Hornby a little bit of pressure to get it right, they might see this as their opportunity. But for us in terms of looking at Hornby as opposition, we respect them a lot obviously, we’ve had some really competitive tussles, we got one over them at the start of the year and they played pretty well in the next couple.
“We respect them, but we don’t want to spend too much time focusing on them – we want to get our preparation right and make sure we get to Sunday looking and feeling our best. It’s going to be a blockbuster and we’ll just be concerned with what we have to get right. If we can do those things, it’s going to be a great game.
“And we’ve got David (Tongotongo), who’s played in lots of grand finals – you talk about Linwood-Hornby for the past several years, well he’s been a big part of that and he’s really brought an edge to our side that kicks the door down. Our players just need to feed off that, it brings them to life when they’re following through.”
Hubbard pinpoints former Panthers forward Tongotongo, Antonio Lemalu and veteran skipper Phil Nati as crucial to the Hornets matching the Panthers and laying a platform for the likes of their wizard in the No.1 jersey to weave his magic.
“They set the tone with their physicality and their presence, they just give so much confidence to the players around them,” the coach says of the engine-room trio.
“But probably the standout has been Ken Tofilau at fullback. He’s just such a competitor and he declared to the boys before the game [against Linwood], ‘I want you to follow me’, which was fantastic for an individual to stick their hand up and say they want to be that person.
“I know it means a lot to these guys – I don’t know if they’re playing their final season of football, but certainly as a playing group if we go on [to win] there will be some different faces around the joint. So to see Ken really step into that space of leadership, and he was 10-out-of-10 on the weekend, he scored an amazing individual try and then played a hand in three tries in the second half.
“He’s certainly walked the talk.”
Tofilau was part of the Hornets’ 2014 grand final triumph as a teenager before being snapped up by Newcastle Knights and winning a NSW Cup grand final in 2015.
He then had a Queensland Cup stint with Central Queensland Capras, where he was joined in 2017 by Nati.
“What they bring to the table is that experience and fearlessness, which has been outstanding,” Hubbard enthuses.
“But it’s been such a team effort – it’s important to note that we’ve been hit by injuries at time and had to call upon our depth in our reserve grade squad.
“Every player that’s come up has done a good job us, so it really makes a difference to what we look like and feel like as a club. That’s reflected by us having two teams in the grand final.”
Hubbard is a Papanui junior who starred for the Bartercard Cup-winning Canterbury Bulls in 2000, scoring over 200 points in the historic success. Ironically, the overlap in that competition and the local premiership prevented him from playing for Papanui in that year’s grand final – won by Halswell, who fielded Walter Wilson at fullback.
After a decade with Queensland Cup side Burleigh Bears, he went to northern NSW and fell into the head coach role with Cugden Hornets after starting as strength and conditioning coach, as well as being roped into playing again.
Falling a game short of a grand final in three straight seasons with Cudgen, the parallels for Hubbard in his current tenure with Halswell extend beyond the clubs’ shared name.
When Hubbard returned to New Zealand and attended the funeral of the Bulls’ 2000 title-winning coach Gerard Stokes, Halswell legend Jeff Whittaker talked him into becoming involved with the club.
“I’m just so lucky to be part of it and be back in the Canterbury Rugby League community – rugby league people are just special, whether it’s people you played with or against, reconnecting with it has been so special for me,” says Hubbard, who works fulltime for New Zealand Rugby League as a National Game Development Officer.
“After coming back not wanting to be involved in the game, it’s pretty much become my whole life – as it has been since I was 16 or 17 years old.
“I’ve made my home at Halswell, the club’s been really good to me. It would make me really proud to honour the club by getting that one more victory.”
Hubbard’s rugby league journey comes full circle this weekend, recalling his first year playing the game as a youngster for Marist-Western Suburbs in 1988 – the same year that club featured in a grand final against Halswell.
“I remember driving down Lincoln Road, seeing streamers and balloons lining the road and I’m thinking, ‘far out, what is going on here’.
“Now to be coaching a Halswell side, I’m sure we’re going to get plenty of parochial supporters. The fixture itself I think is going to be a real throwback and we’ll see a lot of things that will remind people of perhaps what it was like in the ’80s and ’90s.”
