RUGBY LEAGUE
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MUDGEE are the next team in the sights of the Bathurst Panthers juggernaut as John Fearnley’s men head to Glen Willow Sporting Complex this afternoon for the Group 10 premier league minor semi-final.
As they have done for more than a month, Panthers will put their season on the line.
For Mudgee, being in that sudden death situation represents a radical departure from the rest of their 2014 campaign, which was set up by 10 straight wins before a late season lull.
It was Panthers themselves who first exposed the chinks in the Dragons’ armour at Carrington Park with a win that defined their year thus far.
Now Fearnley has a squad of players who are high on confidence after running down a 16-0 deficit last weekend against Orange Hawks in the minor semi-final and who have won seven of their last nine matches.
Panthers will also welcome back one of their biggest stars
“[Hooker] Luke Carpenter passed a fitness test on the knee he dislocated against Orange CYMS, so he’s going to come off the bench for us which is huge. He and Joey Bugg will share the dummy-half role,” the coach said.
“Mick Ingwersen is also back from a shoulder injury, they’re all coming out of the woodwork now.
“There was a lot to take out of the win over Hawks, I thought a turning point was when Buggy scored, that really got us on the front foot and showed his value to the side.
“The old fellow [William Kennedy] was in great form too, he scored two solo tries out of dummy-half and just showed again how valuable he is.”
An important aspect of Panthers’ recent surge has been their ability to adapt to whatever situation they have found themselves in.
They have come from well back as demonstrated against Hawks, they have ambushed sides and put them to the sword as with Mudgee (34-12), Lithgow (40-16) and Blayney (60-16), and absorbed pressure to grind out wins like the 18-10 victory over Orange CYMS.
Even their desperately ugly 26-24 win over Oberon at least showed that they can win when well below their best.
It is that adaptability that Fearnley hopes will prepare his players for anything Mudgee throw at them tomorrow.
Given Mudgee will be without their player-coach Jack Afamasaga and are in a patch that has seen them win just twice in the last two months, the Panthers mentor is confident enough to feel like his team deserve to be favourites.
“The whole atmosphere of the team has changed. If we were down 16-0 in the first round of the competition, we would have lost by 60. St Pat’s would have put 80 on us,” he said.
“The way we’ve been playing, we were strong enough to regroup and realise that if we got an even share of possession last week, we could fight our way back and that’s exactly what we did.
“Momentum is a big thing in football and we have a bit more than Mudgee at the moment, but on the other side of the coin, Mudgee know too that this is their last throw of the dice and things change when you’re in that situation.
“We’re still expecting a torrid match and we know that they didn’t lead the competition for the first 13 or 14 rounds for no reason. But we are going to go over confident that we can do the job.”
Panthers and Mudgee lock horns from 2.30pm in Mudgee.
BATHURST PANTHERS: 1 Cody Robbins, 2 Chris Shephard, 3 William Kennedy, 4 Blake Lawson, 5 Mitch Davis, 6 Matt Rose, 7 Blake Dean, 8 Brent Seager (c), 9 Joey Bugg, 10 Osea Sadrau, 11 Trent Rose, 12 Blake Seager, 14 Jake Betts, 14 Luke Carpenter, 15 Jed Betts, 16 Mick Ingwersen.