IT has been more than five years since Oberon Tigers have beaten Bathurst Panthers in a Group 10 premier league match at Carrington Park and that’s exactly how the men in black want it to stay.
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It was on August 12, 2012, when the Tigers last emerged victorious over Panthers at the venue, the beaten side that day including Brent Seager and Jake Betts.
Since then the Tigers have beaten Panthers, but not at Carrington Park.
That highlights the worth of the home ground advantage Panthers hold this Sunday when the pair square off in the qualifying final.
“I think it’s a massive advantage, especially against Oberon because they’re very tough to play at home,” Panthers coach Todd Barrrow said.
“I’d much rather be playing them at home than up there, but I’m expecting they’ll still have a fair bit of support here.”
Panthers finished the regular season in second, having suffered just one loss through 16 rounds.
The impressive showing thus far includes a pair of wins against the Tigers, the most recent of which was a 54-4 result at Carrington Park last Saturday.
Panthers have scored more than 300 additional points compared to what the Tigers have managed and conceded over 100 less, yet Barrow has played in enough finals to know those sort of statistics carry little weight.
“We’ve had a good season so far, but we’ve got to keep it going. It doesn’t mean anything yet, you want to be there at the business end of the year and this weekend will be the first step towards that,” the coach said.
“I don’t think Luke Branighan [Oberon coach] will be very happy with the way they performed on the weekend and obviously they were missing a few, as we were. I’m expecting a tough game and a different side to the one we played last Saturday.
“The boys have been good all year, it’s an old cliche, but we take it a week at a time. We’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing well, if we can play our best footy the results will come our way.”
While Panthers were comfortable in beating the Tigers last Saturday, it was only in the second half that Barrow’s side was able to take control.
It means Barrow wants to see his men take control of the middle of the field from the opening whistle on Sunday and deny Oberon the chance to work into the contest.
“I think it all just comes from our middle. We didn’t win that middle in the first half last weekend and they were in the game, but once we started getting those quick play the balls and getting the yards up the middle, everything flowed on from there,” he said.
“They turned up that first half and I’d expect them to do the same, so our middle has got to be a lot better. Obviously having Seags [Brent Seager] back this weekend will be massive for us.
“He gets our sets rolling, he takes those tough carries that no-one else wants to take, so we’re pretty happy to have him back.”
Seager is not the only Panther who will return this Sunday, with half Claude Gordon back from a quad strain.
His presence is also a boost for the men in black as they look to make amends for last season’s disappointing finals campaign. Panthers won in week one, but then suffered back-to-back two-point defeats.
“We’ve sort of got last year in the back of our minds and it’s really driving us to do better this year and hopefully go one or two better. It’s all up to us,” Barrow said.
“We didn’t have much luck at the end of last year, but that is what it is, we’ve had to move on. Everyone’s been working hard towards this year and hopefully we can be there at the end of the year and see what happens.”
Sunday’s qualifying final will kick-off at 2.30pm.
