IN a cruel twist of fate, Orange City winger Chris Doyle will miss Saturday's Blowes Menswear Cup grand final against Dubbo Kangaroos with a broken collarbone after sitting out his under 16s decider with the same injury.

Doyle also suffered a broken collarbone in the semi-finals of his under 16s campaign so he revealed the pain of missing the premiership game is nothing new to him.

"I got wedged in between two people in a tackle," Doyle said about how his injury occurred against CSU Bathurst in the minor semi-final.

"They said it was a definite break because it was separated.

"I've done it before actually in the same situation. In the under 16s semi-final I snapped it and missed the grand final. I've been there before

"With any injury, just sitting on the sideline watching your mates out there, you just want to be out there and you can't get out there to help them so it's very hard that way."

The flyer has endorsed his replacement, Daniel Sandford, who he believes played well in his absence last Saturday against Narromine.

"Dan's a very good player. He had very good defence on the weekend, I couldn't (see) anything that he did wrong," Doyle said.

The Central West representative gives his team-mates a good chance of toppling 'Roos given their amazing transformation from cellar-dwellers to living in the penthouse.

And while he credits coach Michael Gray as a big reason behind the Lions' change in fortunes, he thinks the spirit now at the club is the driving force behind the team's success.

"The whole team is completely (different) from last year, wooden spooners," Doyle said. "It's not necessarily all the coach, it's the whole club overall.

"It's a better environment, everyone's happy and everyone's supporting each other ... so it's a complete reversal from last year."

Doyle will head to Dubbo's No.1 Oval to support his team and if you would like to wish the Lions well, send your message to sport.cwd@ruralpress.com and it may appear in the Central Western Daily later this week.