The Hawks hit the lead just before fulltime when centre Ben Murray finished off a break by five-eighth Keda Moylan to score a try converted by impressive hooker Riley Glover. The final siren was a merciful relief for spectators, who had to watch two teams cough up possession continuously for 80 minutes.

It was a warm afternoon and the season's first game so there were some excuses for the mistake-rate. However, some of the errors would frustrate the coach of an under seven side.

The Tigers in particular were awful in the second half. They managed just three completions and on five occasions dropped the ball on the first tackle. Wingham only managed to get into Forster's end of the field once in the second section and they dropped the ball.

Captain-coach Mick Sullivan was livid at fulltime and spent a considerable time berating his players in the dressing shed.

"I've never been involved in a game - even in juniors, where there was so much dropped ball,'' he said later.

"It's not good enough. You can't  do anything if you can't catch the ball. We didn't deserve to get out of jail today.

"You can't work on not having the ball. If players can't catch the ball and do the hard stuff then we're not going to have them in first grade. 

"Our defensive effort was pretty big to be honest. But it's not a game where you can have 10 percent of possession and expect to win.''

Sullivan added that scoring an early try possibly didn't help his side.

"It might have come a bit too easy,'' he said.

"We made four lines breaks to one in the first half and only capitalised on one of them. But we were scrappy and there was no confidence out there in the second half. It was one of the worst games of footy I've been involved with - so we can only get better.''

Forster coach Phil Adamson admitted it was 'a sloppy game'.'

"But we'll take the result,'' he quickly added.

"It was the first game and it's all about getting through a few more sets in the second half.''

Related:

The Hawks were behind 12-4 at halftime but had the wind at their backs in the second half and Adamson said this was a crucial factor.

"I knew there was more than six points in that breeze,'' he said. 

Adamson is convinced the Hawks have a promising side.

"We have a few extra forwards this year and a few blokes back.

"It's sponsors' day today and we have a big crowd here and we've rewarded them with a win.''

Glover, a North Coast under 23 representative this season, was busy at hooker for the Hawks and he was about the best on ground, along with his Wingham counterpart Mitch Collins. Moylan at five-eighth produced two crucial plays late in the game that turned the match Forster's way. Newcomer Matt Wakefield at lock was happy to get into the grind and should be a valuable acquisition for the club.

The game started positively for the Tigers when Sullivan delayed a pass to send second rower Kyran Budd strolling over for a try converted by Danny Russell. When centre Trent Green made a made and sent Sullivan scampering for a second converted try it looked a case of Wingham by how far.

But the Hawks responded when rookie halfback Kye Burke sent a long pass to give centre Chris Simon some space, He positioned winger Dylan Clarke who had too much pace for the cover and it was 12-4 at the break. The score was unchanged until 13 minutes from the end, even though the Hawks were virtually camped in Wingham territory. Then Moylan put up a cross kick and Murray went high to take the ball and crashed over. There was no goal and the Hawks were within two points at 12-10 before Moylan and Murray combined again for the match winner.