CHRIS Rothnie, Andrew Nelson and Zac Forostenko are three of a dozen Orange Tigers lining up for Central West today, with the representative side gunning to avenge last year’s loss to Northern Riverina.

Rothnie played in last year’s fixture and the memory of the heartbreaking 11 point loss burns brightly in his mind, while Nelson and Forostenko - returning to the representative scene and debuting respectively - both said helping Central West win back the Matt Smith Memorial Shield is their main motivation too.

“It’s definitely a motivating factor,” Rothnie said.

“Winning back the (Matt Smith Memorial Shield) is pretty important to us.”

“I don’t think we’ve won it since 2012,” Nelson added.

“So it would be nice to get it back, we’re keen to get out there and hopefully get a win.”

“I’m looking to forward to playing the higher standard,” Forostenko, who moved to Orange this year to study clinical science at university, said.

“I’m really looking forward to it, it should be good.”

To do so, as coach Nathan Pearce - also the Tigers’ mentor - highlighted earlier in the week, speed and hard work in defence is crucial.

“We need to play much more of a running game against Northern Riverina, spread them wide rather than the congested type of footy we see around here,” Nelson, named at centre-half-back, said.

“Smart footy across halfback is important for that, making sure we’ve got runners both ways,” Rothnie, expected to play halfback-flank, said.

Having so many Orange players in the side can only help Central West’s chances, Nelson said.

“Having Pearcey coaching is a big thing too,” Nelson explained. “We know each other, we know the way we play, it should make a big difference in the game.”

Other Tigers players in the Central West side are Tim Barry, Matt Dippolito, Dale Hunter, Daniel Bruce, Josh Bubnich, Leigh Turner, Michael Rothnie, Paul Jenkins and Ben Monaghan.

Central West takes on Northern Riverina at Hillston, after the under 12, 14 and 17 fixtures.