THERE was no doubting that Dubbo CYMS were fired up and hungry to bounce back by the way they began Sunday's Tom Nelson Under 18s premiership semi-final on Sunday.
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It was a ruthless start that ended up laying the platform for Dubbo's 28-14 success over Orange CYMS in the Fishies derby at Wade Park.
Dubbo utilised both their size and their speed out wide to score three times inside the opening 15 minutes of the sudden death clash.
The home side showed more fight in an evenly poised second half but by that point Dubbo had done the damage.
It was a strong way for the Dubbo boys and Group 11 minor premiers to get back to their winning ways after being stunned by the Lithgow Workies in the opening week of finals.
Dubbo five eighth Josh Townsend thought that although the team went away from what was working well for them towards the end of the game it was still a match for them to be proud of.
"Our first half was good and we slacked off a little bit in the second. We're going to need to be a lot better for Hawks next week," he said.
"I think during that first half we held the footy well, we had some great kicks, defended well, we were more disciplined and didn't give away penalties.
"At half-time we were big on coming out and doing that same thing that we had been doing but we slacked off. Our best footy can be enough to win the comp, we just need to get out there and do it for 60 minutes."
For Orange captain Will Warner it was a tough way to bow out after a solid season of footy for his side.
"At the start we had a lot of silly errors and the penalties really killed us in the end," he said.
"It was disappointing to go out there and play the way that we shouldn't. Slow starts have been a bit of a problem for us this year.
"A few of the good younger boys will be back next year but a few older players will move up. But it'll be promising if those younger guys can stick around, and we've got some great under 16s coming through as well."
Dubbo got the scoreboard ticking over for the first time in the eighth minute through a tough catch and dive across the line from winger Will Lumley.
When halfback Latrell Fing crossed for a try and prop Nayhte Peachey picked the gap for his own four-pointer the Dubbo boys' score matched the clock in the 16th minute.
Orange finally enjoyed some sustained pressure near the Dubbo try line inside the last 10 minutes of the half and eventually broke through on the left edge through Oli Maunder.
It would have been a nice confidence builder for the hosts coming into half-time if not for an error that allowed Dubbo's other starting prop, Wade Lewis, to push the score out to 22-6 with his try.
The attacking flow was sucked out of the Dubbo offence for much of the second term, but their rivals also continued to struggle finding a breakthrough.
Warner's try for Orange was quickly answered by one for Michael Ross, which put the visitors up by 20 with the same number of minutes remaining.
The green and golds did manage to muster up one more try - a consolation effort to Jack Dean after the siren.
DUBBO CYMS 28 (Will Lumley, Latrell Fing, Nayhte Peachey, Wade Lewis, Michael Ross tries; Jordan Porter 4 conversions) defeated ORANGE CYMS 14 (Oli Maunder, Will Warner, Jack Dean tries; Ty Nean conversion)
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