Hawkesbury Hawks Rugby League 3-peat champions
with Matt “ Duck Man ” Austin
Rugby league is a game that people fall in love with . Tina Turner brought out the greatest sporting anthem of all time about rugby league , Simply The Best , back in the nineties . It ’ s a brutal game and winning the competition is the pinnacle , and watching teams have legacy eras in modern rugby league with limited tackle counts is rare .
It is difficult to do at a professional level in the NRL , and it certainly doesn ’ t get any easier back in the world of park football , particularly in the Panthers Juniors rugby league competition .
So , to think that Hawkesbury have won the last three division 2 competitions is an extraordinary effort , coming out of the back end of COVID too when clubs have folded , and players have changed clubs . And Hawkesbury were looking likely to make a 4 th grand final in 2021 to make an appearance as well before the season was cut short after 9 rounds .
The run started too on the back of
Hawkesbury Hawks 2024 Barry Nicol Cup Premieres . Credit : Hawkesbury Hawks . some talented young locals coming through the ranks together and they put together a strong team back in 2022 with players such as Reece Lipowicz and Marli Sini kicking on to play higher levels after experiencing success in the 1 st year of the run .
Talented local players like Jack Mesa , Benjamin Mills , Blake Faint , Tully Murphy , Henry Peters , Lachlan Faint , Mitchell Fitzpatrick , Mitchell Gauci and Dylan Finlayson have all been there for the whole ride which makes the achievement even more special .
Even more extraordinary is the pure talent of the team . Back in 2022 Hawkesbury had the top 3 try scorers in division 2 with Lochlan Brian and Benjamin Mills carrying the flag . There were 13 tries a piece with Tully Murphy 3 rd on 12 , and Lochlan Brian finished as the top point scorer on 92 points for the season as the Hawks racked up 11 wins from 12 matches along the way in a season heavily punctuated by 5 weeks of heavy rain and cancelled matches . The decider went the Hawks way 28-12 vs Western Vikings at Windsor Sporting Complex .
The Hawks had high hopes in 2023 of being able to go back-to-back despite the loss of Lipowicz and Sini , and they didn ’ t muck about bringing the heat to a reduced division 2 competition with
Hawkesbury Hawks Minor Premieres , 2024 . Credit : Hawkesbury Hawks .
10 wins and 2 losses through the regular season , 1 of which was to Riverstone at Turnbull Oval in round 13 , 32-16 .
That loss flicked the switch for the Hawks who did a hatchet job on Western City Tigers the following week 50-0 , followed by a brutal 54-12 whipping of Lower Mountains at Peppertree in the GF Qualifier . They also exacted revenge on the local rivals , the Riverstone Razorbacks 30-4 in the decider .
It was a clinical performance with Hawkesbury picking up 5 tries in a real muscle flex match . Lachlan Faint finished as the 2 nd top try scorer for the year with 14 tries and Dylan Finlayson blew the competition away with 142 points for the season , 38 points better than the next best .
This year is the year of the Hawks . They were scintillating best with 14 wins in 16 regular season games only punctuated by a loss in round 1 to Riverstone 18-10 , and a loss in round 11 against St Pats top side 42-28 . That seemed to be enough to motivate the Hawkesbury boys to kick on and finish the job , as they went on a 7-match winning streak to close out the season with an impressive 32-22 win over St Pats .
Tully Murphy finished as 2 nd top try scorer for the comp with 22 tries , and Henry Peters finished with an impressive 156 points to finish 2 nd overall in the competition ’ s leading point scorers . The dominance was obvious all year with Hawkesbury having 802 points for and 174 against for a whopping differential of 628 points .
It was another all-round performance by the local Hawkesbury lads , and in 2025 , we ’ ll see if they can do 4 in a row .
The Shadow Cat truly is an NFL super fan
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with Matt “ Duck Man ” Austin
Every sport in the world has patriotic fans , and some of these hardcore fans are even described as Super Fans . This is no different for Joshua Lee Outland . Josh is a former North Carolina resident and now a proud Aussie who is a massive Carolina Panthers fan and a huge Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles fan .
Josh has helmets , costumes , belts , jerseys , Power Rangers ’ figurines and everything else you can imagine . He started off his collection in 2011 with a flip Power Rangers helmet and dragon sword and was a Detroit Lions fan back in the day before he became a world-renowned Carolina Panthers fan .
Josh became a Carolina Panthers fan back in 2014 and he wanted to go to his first ever NFL game and become a super fan . He wanted to get a name that all Carolina Panthers fans would know who he is .
He put his name into a Game of Thrones name selector , and it said his character name was Sir Shadow Cat
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of House Lanister .
Josh loved it and decided to assess it online . He tried his name at the Carolina Panthers games and all the Carolina Panthers fans got to know his name as the Shadow Cat from Aussie Riot , he was getting introduced on Monday night NFL games as the Shadow Cat and always talks on NFL forums under the same name .
And the Shadow Cat knows his stuff . He is the ultimate super fan and has the full costume and Panther masks . Josh has full subscriptions to DAZN , the broadcast partner for the NFL and he watches as many games out of the 16 matches a week as possible .
The Shadow Cat lives and breathes the Super Fan lifestyle and has his own Fantasy NFL team in five online leagues , and he is good at Fantasy Football . I ’ ve been looking to run a dedicated NFL segment for several years and it just didn ’ t get there in the past . But the acquisition of The Shadow Cat to Pulse 89.9 FM every Friday night after 7pm for the dedicated NFL show , The Scrimmage Line , has been a huge coup for the season .
His knowledge and passion are unwavering , and Josh is the complete package as a
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Super Fan . He is genuine and passionate , knows everything about the competition and demonstrates his passion each week . He also wants to get to the stage where he can call some NFL games or even Sydney Gridiron games in the future .
The Panthers in the NFL haven ’ t been travelling so good the last few years so it ’ s a labour of love when you wake up at 3.00am on a Monday morning to watch your team play live , even when they are struggling .
Josh would love to see CJ Stroud , who is the hottest rising quarterback in the whole NFL end up one day at his home team , the Carolina Panthers , some day in the future . He ’ s still dirty that the Panthers traded Christian McCaffrey in 2022 to the 49ers as he is a superstar and was rated as the NFL offensive player of the year for 2023 , with 1459 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns .
Funnily enough , Josh also loves the Penrith Panthers , and they have had amazing success since he has been following the team . They have helped make up for the lack of success for the Carolina Panthers have had with no NFC South divisional championships or NFC conference championships since 2015 .
You ’ ll be able to hear The Shadow Cat all NFL season on Pulse 89.9 FM on Friday nights at 7pm and on Spotify with The
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Scrimmage Line , as he hopes to bring his knowledge and passion as a Super Fan to the airwaves on Sydney FM radio ’ s only dedicated NFL program hoping to see his Panthers win their first NFL Super Bowl ring . |
36 ISSUE 173 // OCTOBER 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au THE HAWKESBURY INDEPENDENT