Orange CYMS will have the huge advantage of knowing exactly what they need to do, right down the scoreline, to claim the minor premiership in this weekend’s final Group 10 premier league regular season round, against the Blayney Bears.
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Equal at the top of the standings with Bathurst Panthers on competition points, CYMS host Blayney on Sunday but crucially the men in black’s round 18 clash against the third-placed Oberon Tigers is on Saturday.
“We already have a lead on points difference and Panthers playing a big one on Saturday will really help us out. It means that going into our game we’ll know whether we just need a win or if we need to win by a certain margin,” CYMS captain-coach Mick Sullivan said.
“We really want that minor premiership because we’ve still got injuries, the week off would mean we’d get a lot of players back before the major semi-final, instead of playing down on troops in that first week of the finals.”
Whether it’s just a win, or a big one, it’ll have to come at the expense of a fired-up Bears side, looking to finish its season by claiming its maiden win of 2017.
“I am always wary of these sides that are out of contention,” Sullivan said.
“Blayney are going into a drink after this one so they’ll want to roll into it with a positive result, they’ll be fired up. They’ve got the whole off-season after this so guys tend not to worry about injuries, or suspensions.
“These last round games can be really tough and we’re expecting that this weekend.”
Sullivan and his troops come into Sunday’s game in very unfamiliar territory, for the first time this season they’re trying to bounce back from a loss after suffering their first defeat of the season to Lithgow last weekend.
“For us it really is about completions,” Sullivan said.
“It’s pretty boring in terms of footy, but if we can complete and get ourselves plenty of ball we will score points.
“Lithgow starved us of it in the first stages last weekend and we didn’t really react to it all that well, so we’ll be looking to fix that up and certainly tighten up defensively too, I think we’d only leaked 30 points once this season until last weekend.”
Still hit hard by injuries, CYMS will welcome back Luke Petrie this weekend. Normally a half, he’s expected to slot into lock.
Kick off at Wade Park on Sunday is at 3pm.
- ORANGE CYMS: 1 Ben McAlpine, 2 Semisi Katoa, 3 Lachie Munro, 4 Joe Lasagavibau, 5 Tom Satterthwaite, 6 Dom Maley, 7 Mick Sullivan (c), 8 Cam Jones, 9 Ryan Griffin, 10 Paradise Mann, 11 Joe Duffy, 12 Brock McGarity, 13 Luke Petrie