Orange Emus enjoying an easy win at Northparkes Oval?
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That’ll be the day pigs fly, greens coach Paul Ringland says, warning his troops against taking the wounded Boars lightly in Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup round seven road trip.
Bathurst Bulldogs went Boar hunting last weekend and secured a spectacular 70-7 victory, one which only makes the resurgent, fifth-placed Parkes unit more dangerous in Ringland’s eyes.
“Bulldogs haven’t done us any favours, beating Parkes like that,” Ringland laughed.
“Not that we’re reading into it too much, they might have had a few out and just had a bad day. I don’t think they have the depth of the bigger clubs.
“But there’s no doubt they’ll be coming out firing.”
That’s magnified by the fact Emus have struggled at Northparkes Oval, they’ve only won two of their last four encounters there.
Last year’s trip netted a 50-5 win, but Ringland dismissed the suggestion that was an easy win as hogwash.
Even though Emus won that game by 45 points, the greens’ mentor said the scoreline didn’t reflect how hard his side had to battle to bring home the bacon.
“We have had trouble at Parkes in the past, we never seem to play well there for some reason,” he said.
“We can’t really put our finger on it, if we could we’d fix the problem. It just seems to be one of those things, one of those grounds we just haven’t enjoyed playing on I guess.”
Emus will be without in-form flanker Scott McLean, who sustained an injury in last weekend’s win over CSU Bathurst. Harry Hamilton comes back into the side in his place, while hooker Tom Goolagong also returns.
Emus and Parkes do battle from 3.15pm.
- ORANGE EMUS: 1 Al Hattersley, 2 Tom Goolagong, 3 Michael Graham, 4 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 5 Sam McLean, 6 Harry Hamilton, 7 Andrew Selwood, 8 Rob Thorburn, 9 Sam Green, 10 AJ Sykes, 11 Levi Russell, 12 Lachie Harris, 13 Carter Hirini, 14 Tom Green, 15 Nigel Staniforth ©