The 2021 Group 9 Junior Rugby League (JRL) season came to a halt in round 14, with games not going ahead on the games scheduled for August 14, due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The competition has now been abandoned.
This left the Harden Hawks JRL teams unable to compete wearing their annual purple jerseys, raising money for a charity.
However, the annual jersey auction is running online and finishing this afternoon (Monday September 6) at 5pm.
“Whilst not being an ideal way to end the season we felt as a club we were doing the best thing for our community by not putting anyone unnecessarily at risk by continuing from round 13. This of course meant not being able to hold our fundraising day with an auction of extra jerseys after the games. As always the kids look forward to playing in their special purple jerseys,” said club spokeswoman Karen Steele.
“We also have purple socks that all the teams play in on the day. We have, for the past 10-plus years, designed these jerseys as what started as pink day which was changed to purple a few years back. Breast cancer was what we started raising funds for and then as we changed the colour decided to combine with the grey which supports brain cancer.”
The auction is raising money to support the Greg Whitehead Fishing Challenge Cure Brain Cancer Foundation. Again, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the annual fishing challenge couldn’t go ahead last month.
“At the time of choosing which group to donate funds to it was close to when Greg Whitehead had passed away, and him being a local Harden man was a close friend to many involved with junior league. We wanted a charity that raised money for a great cause and being that it impacted the community in some way,” Mrs Steele said.
“Being able to choose the different charities will hopefully make the children aware of the kinds of things that can happen, and to know that if it were to happen to them or someone in their family that they would have extra support.”
This year's jersey design was created by committee member Guy Abnett.
The front of the jersey represents the twin towns - Harden and Murrumburrah - and all the surrounding villages gathering together where the two creeks meet, the Murrimboola.
The Wiradjuri walking and hunting tracks are shown, winding over the rolling hills that are spread across our large Hilltops shire. The goanna, Gugaa, is the totem of the Wiradjuri people.
On the back of the jersey both the Harden Murrumburrah and Boorowa townships are represented by the two meeting places.
Together with the Murrumbidgee river and yellow belly native fish, Bidyin, this part of the jersey was designed with the Greg Whitehead fishing competition in mind. The yellow belly was one of Greg’s favourite fish to catch.
“The fishing competition raises money for the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation. Which our purple round does also. Hence the rest of the jersey being coloured purple,” Mrs Steele said.
“We have added in a touch of blue to the jerseys to integrate into next year's chosen charity.”
Head to the Harden Hawks JRL Facebook page to enter the auction.
