Fitness, or lack thereof, has been an issue in Orange City’s back-to-back losses to Orange Emus and Forbes, Sam Dwyer has no doubt about that, but he’s firmly of the opinion the young Lions’ mindset has played a bigger role in the defeats.
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Not just this year either, the towering centre thinks its partly a psychological hangover from the last two Blowes Clothing Cup seasons.
The Lions struggled against the competition’s top four sides – Emus, Forbes, Dubbo Kangaroos and Bathurst Bulldogs – in 2016 and 2017, winning just two of 17 encounters across that period and that’s taken its toll, Dwyer says.
“I think we’ve shown these teams a little bit too much respect at times,” he fired.
“Emus and Forbes are really classy and deserve the success they’ve had, Roos and Dogs have always been strong too, but I think we’ve given them too much credit in a way and gone out there hoping to compete with them or just happy to run with them, rather than genuinely thinking we can beat them.
“At the end of the day this is still park rugby, we’re not playing Super Rugby, it’s still week-to-week for most clubs and you never really know what the other sides will bring to the table.
“Maybe we’ve underestimated ourselves as well, gone into our shell a bit and they’ve dictated terms after that. There’s no shortage of talent at Orange City, there’s a good vibe this year and we’re working hard for each other, so if we get ourselves in the right mindset and put some 80-minute performances together, there’s no reason we can’t be right up there.”
That needs to start against Roos this weekend, Dwyer says, coincidentally the team both of the before-mentioned wins came against, in rounds eight and 17 of 2016.
“If we don’t start winning soon it will be a bloody long year,” he said.
”We’ve had an extra bit of rivalry there with Roos in the last few years and it’s always a pretty good battle, and I 100 per cent think this weekend is a really good chance for us to open our account.”
There was plenty of buzz round the Dubbo outfit pre-season, but its failed to live up to that hype in the opening two rounds, going down to Forbes 31-7 before edging home against Cowra last weekend with a 22-12 win.
“I’m not reading into any of that,” Dwyer said.
“As I said, you don’t know what they’ll bring to the table, I don’t know much about them and worrying about what they’re doing won’t help us much.
“If we can get our rugby right, play the way we want to for 80 minutes and keep ourselves switched on, I think the win’s there for the taking.”
The Lions’ starting XV will be confirmed on Friday, but a similar side to last weekend’s against Forbes is expected to be named, with the inclusion of Josh Tremain.
The Lions host Roos from 3.15pm on Saturday, at Pride Park.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
