Hawks’ grand plans for 2011

NOT capitalising on their end of season success last year would be a failure according to Orange Hawks captain-coach Todd Barrow.

The Hawks leader wants his side to kick-off their 2011 Group 10 campaign with the form they showed at the end of last season.

Hawks had to win their final two matches to sneak into the semi-finals.

They defeated Bathurst Panthers 38-10 in round 13 then Cowra Magpies 28-22 a week later.

In the first week of the finals they again played the Magpies, this time in Cowra, and won 23-18.

They travelled to Bathurst’s Jack Arrow Oval and took on Bathurst St Pat’s and again the Orange side caused an upset, defeating the 2008 premiers 26-20.

But the two blues’ run came to an end at Mudgee in the preliminary final.

Barrow said last year’s four-match winning streak showed many teams in the competition Hawks would be a force in 2011.

“We don’t want to go backwards from where we finished last year,” Barrow said.

“We’ve spoken a bit about last year. We had a few losses in a row at the start and it was pretty hard to get back from that.

“We just need to start strong this year.”

Hawks begin their Group 10 campaign against cross-town rivals and defending premiers Orange CYMS on Saturday, May 7.

Hawks-CYMS matches are always fiery encounters and this year’s opening blockbuster at Wade Park should be no different.

As the competition favourites, CYMS will be wanting to go back-back, but Barrow said his side would be no easy beats.

“CYMS are the benchmark, they deserve to be,” he said.

“We need to step up an extra gear to match them.”

Barrow said a good number of players had turnout for pre-season training.

“We’ve had a few new signings. So we’re looking strong.

“The club has got Daniel Lang from Walgett. He plays in the halves and from what I have seen of him looks pretty handy.”

Barrow, hooker Anthony Redfern and Hawks officials were on hand to meet up with some of the club’s sponsors including new major sponsor construction and contract mining company MacMahon.

MacMahon operations manager east Alf Garnett loves his rugby league and wanted to be involved in the game.

“It’s something we wanted to get out and support the community, and we thought this was the perfect opportunity,” Garnett said.

Another new dimension for the Hawks is their training regime with members from Advanced World Martial Arts Taekwondo.

They will be able to work on their strength and ground technique such as dominating the ruck and wrestling players to the ground.