The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are two of the world’s biggest trilogies – thank you JRR Tolkien.
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But, on Saturday at Wade Park, rugby league fans from both Bathurst and Orange will be treated to the finale of another thrilling trinity when CYMS plays Panthers in the under 16s Group 10 grand final.
The two sides have squared off in the under 14s and under 15s grand finals in 2015 and then 2016, the ledger currently squared at one a piece.
The two square off in their final year of junior footy on Saturday, and CYMS coach Craig Piper says, despite two losses to the men in black during the regular season, past results count for nothing in the big dance.
“We’re without a win but they were hard fought games … and as we've shown against Mudgee and Blayney-Cowra the last two weeks regular season means nothing now,” Piper said.
Piper was confident his side’s pack would step up the challenge, with Rams guns Josh Piper and Mitch Collins two forwards that have tasted senior footy in 2017.
While Kobe Astill and Tarik Sullivan will also shoulder some of the load in the middle of the field, with Nick Masling “our X factor out wide”, Piper added.
“Our strength lies in our forwards,” the title-winning coach said.
“So to get the W (win) we need to be good in the middle, hold the ball and not give silly penalties.”
Piper said playing at Wade Park will be an added bonus for his CYMS his and the green and golds’ under 15s and under 10s in action on grand final day.
“We spoke at the start of the year that the potential was there to play their last junior game at home in a grand final at Wade Park,” he said of his side’s decider.
“It's always been in the back of our mind.
CYMS president Andrew Livingstone was thrilled the club had three sides in contention to win grand finals on home turf.
But more importantly he said it was just great to see kids enjoying the game, with the decider bound CYMS under 10s boys indicative of that.
The club has a stack of talent in its under 10s group, and as a result split the squad into Yellow and Green sides for 2017.
The group has stuck together this season, though, so when the Green boys run out on to Wade Park for the first grand final in Saturday’s seven-game card, expect a strong contingent of Yellow boys there to cheer them on.
“We had a few sides in the semis, it's a good result,” Livingstone said.
“Not that we're overly worried about results, we're just happy to have a stack of kids playing.”
Undefeated minor premiers has a nice ring to it – just ask Orange CYMS’ under 15s.
But, after St Pat’s knocked off the green and golds 36-24 in the under 15s major semi-final two weeks ago to be the first side to progress straight through to the decider, it all threatened to unravel for CYMS.
But a 44-4 preliminary final win over Lithgow-Oberon at Cowra last week has the green and golds’ primed to avenge what was a tough first loss of the season against St Pat’s at King George Oval a fortnight ago.
The under 15s grand final kicks off at 2.10pm.
The Group 10 Junior Rugby League grand finals begin at 9am.