The Cowra Magpies' senior men's side notched its first win of the season on Sunday afternoon, unleashing a comprehensive 40-0 win against the Lithgow Workies at Sid Kallas Oval.
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Braydn Cassidy and Warren Williams scored two tries each in the win, which provided a healthy corrective to the Magpies' for and against after losses against the Mudgee Dragons and Orange Hawks in the opening two rounds of the season.
However the win didn't come without its injury trouble, with new recruit Matt Naden straining a hamstring in the second half, with his availability to be determined, while Zac Browne's hand remains a "week-to-week proposition" according to coach Kurt Hancock.
However, the injury failed to halt the Magpies who started out strong, putting up tries in the ninth, 12th, and 27th minutes to take an 18-0 lead against an undermanned Lithgow outfit that were missing four of their best.
In the second half, things didn't get any better for the Workies, with playmakers Joey Bugg and Claude Gordon beginning to exert considerable control on the game, while winger John Grant got in on the try scoring late to the put the game beyond doubt.
After a tough couple of weeks, Magpies coach Kurt Hancock was pleased with his side's intent, which he said was imminent from the side's last training session before the game.
"Our training was outstanding on Friday night," Hancock explained.
"I knew we were going to deliver a performance like this."
However, Hancock said while the rewards showed themselves today, the performance was something the side had been working towards for a while.
"I haven't been here as much as I should be, so that's probably half my fault," the Western Rams Under 18s mentor explained.
"But we sat down, and we had a real good chat about what we were trying to do and spoke about everybody's roles, and everybody had an understanding.
"By the end of Friday night, everybody trusted each other... and that just showed today on the footy park."
However, while Hancock also admitted that Lithgow's set ups probably were complimentary to the Magpies, especially with the outs they had on the day, there was an emphasis on the small things that perhaps wasn't there in the Magpies' first two matches.
"We did the little things way better today than we did the last two weeks," Hancock said.
"There was a period the last two weeks where in both games we had 12 to 15 minutes... where that mentality went away and that's when they skipped away from us.
"We knew we had to have that mentality and be really stubborn, I suppose, and headstrong, and stay in the game for a full 80 [minutes].
"I thought they did that really well today."
Hancock was also pleased with the form of winger Mok and centre Williams, who were both highly influential in the win.
"He [Mok] was outstanding, and Warren Williams was great," Hancock said, with the Magpies now to head over to Blayney to take on the Bears on Sunday.
COWRA MAGPIES 40 (Tries: Braydn Cassidy, Warren Williams 2, Lewis Dwyer, Joey Bugg, John Grant. Goals: Caley Mok 6) defeated LITHGOW WORKIES 0.
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