If you were a betting man, you’d load up on Orange Emus in this weekend’s Blowes Clothing Cup local derby.
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If you were basing that bet on the statistics anyway.
So far in 2017 the greens boast a substantial advantage over the Lions in all the measurable, numerical facets of the game.
Emus have won every game they’ve played so far this season to sit unbeaten on top of the standings – 11 points in front of second – compared to the Lions’ five wins from 13 starts.
The greens have earned bonus points in 12 of those games, compared to the Lions’ five.
The greens also boast the best attacking and defensive records in the competition.
Emus have scored an incredible 719 points so far this season, racking up triple figures on two occasions and sitting 139 points in front of the next best attacking side – the third-placed Dubbo Kangaroos.
That’s a whopping average of 55 points per game.
In a miserly season so far, Emus have only conceded 121 points at an average of less than 10 per game.
Orange City, on the other hand, ranks fifth in both those categories.
That’s appropriate, considering the Lions are clinging onto fifth place on the competition standings as well.
They’re 13 points behind fourth place and in terms of points scored and conceded, they trail by quite a bit too.
The Lions have scored 369 points at an average of 28.38 per game, strong numbers, but 143 behind fourth.
They’re virtually cancelled out by the 367 points Orange City has conceded though, at 28.23 per game, 131 more than fourth.
But, as any rugby union fan will tell you, statistics rarely tell the whole story and as with any local derby, Saturday’s is inevitably going to be an epic encounter.
And who doesn’t love an underdog?
Outside this year’s first local derby, which the greens won 46-12, the other most recent Emus-City blockbusters have been just that – epic.
Including that result earlier this year Emus hold the bragging rights, since the start of 2014 anyway.
The greens have won seven of the last 11 games between the two sides, including the last five straight local derbies.
In fact the last time the Lions won was in round 18 of 2015 – a 34-26 win at Endeavour Oval. Emus went on to defeat Orange City in the major semi-final and grand final that year.
Orange City has won three of those last 11 games, the final result being an 8-all draw in round nine of 2014.
In the past three-and-a-half seasons the average winning margin between the two sides has been just 12 points, blown out by Emus’ win this year and Orange City’s 33-10 victory in the 2014 preliminary final.
