Persistent rain and flooding has disrupted the side’s preparations in the lead-up to the annual carnival, but coach Matt Tabbernor, of Orange, said it shouldn’t hinder the team.

“We had a trial game against Gordon that we had to cancel, we’ve only had one training run in late August before the carnival but a few of the guys have been doing a bit locally,” Tabbernor said.

Those guys include Dubbo’s Marty Jeffrey, Ben Knaggs and Henry Railz, who were all part of the ACT/ NSW Country training squads in the lead-up to last month’s State Challenge.

Players from across the eight country zones will converge on Dubbo for the three-day carnival, with Western Zone set to face their biggest challenge, Newcastle, on day one on Friday.

The home side will face up against ACT/ Southern – another strong contender – on Saturday and then North Coast on Sunday.

“I haven’t seen them but traditionally Newcastle is always strong in this age group,” Tabbernor said.

“We’ve got a tough couple of days but if we get through those then we’ll set ourselves up well to take on North Coast.”

Western will be looking to go one better than last year, when won their opening two contests but lost to the eventual winners Central Northern on the final day.

Strong top and middle orders will a massive strength for Western on the highway-like pitches of Dubbo, Tabbernor said.

Orange CYMS’ Michael Hannelly and Mitch Winslade should open the batting and play an all-round role, respectively.