Last year’s disappointing, round 11 draw with Blayney, which went a long way to costing the two blues a finals berth, won’t play on Orange Hawks’ mind when they travel to King George Oval to face the Bears in Sunday’s third round of the 2018 Group 10 premier league season.
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That draw was the only competition point Blayney secured outside byes in 2017 and it came at a time winning when Hawks’ only option, but two blues captain-coach Willie Heta says that result shouldn’t act as a motivator for his side.
“A couple of guys did bring it up but I said we have to erase it from our memories, that was a long time ago and this is a new side, a new season, it shouldn’t be a motivating factor at all,” Heta said.
“We’re a lot stronger as a group now and everyone is really buying into to what (assistant coach) Bobby Wykamp and I are trying to do, which is great.
“We just need to keep building, we’ve set our goals for this season and at the moment we’re taking it week-by-week to try and keep improving, which I think we will again (on Sunday).”
There’s few who would predict a Bears upset this weekend, considering they’ve lost their first two games by six tries or more while Hawks remain undefeated, with a draw and win to start the season.
That win came over Cowra too, a stunning result considering the Magpies had trounced the star-studded Oberon Tigers the week before.
“I was really happy with that result last weekend. To get a win like that, on the road, against a team that beat the premiership favourites the week before, we couldn’t have asked for more,” Heta said.
But, despite the confidence his side earned from that victory, Blayney still poses a danger.
“Always, they always do,” Heta said.
“You know, they’re a new side and they’re still trying to work out combinations as you do in the first few games of the season, so I’m sure they’ll be improved again this weekend.
“And I’ve said it before, every side in this competition is much tougher at their home ground, so I’m sure Blayney will really come out firing out there this weekend and really put it to us.”
Heta’s named Group 10 stars Rakai Tuheke and Ethan McKellar on his bench for Sunday, but how they pull up from Saturday’s Western Rams Representative Cluster will be the deciding factor in whether they start or not.
“It really just depends, we’ll see how they pull up,” Heta said.
“We’ve also got Nathan Potts and Brodie Christopherson playing in the under 23s, so we’ll see how they go too.”
Kick-off at King George Oval is at 1.45pm.
- ORANGE HAWKS: 1 Jake Blimka, 2 Eman Rodriguez, 3 Kyle Robbins, 4 Jack Aumuller, 5 Jordan Baker, 6 Willie Heta (c), 7 Brodie Christopherson, 8 Sam Coyte, 9 Glen Maxwell, 10 Ethan Bereyne, 11 Kyle Byrnes, 12 Brett Morgan, 13 Nathan Potts; Bench: 14 Rakai Tuheke, 15 Ethan McKellar, 16 Ethan Monk, 17 Sia Nemani
- BLAYNEY BEARS: 1 Carter Hirini, 2 Ryley Oborn, 3 Ryan Oborn, 4 Nathan Lawrence, 5 Zach Stammers, 6 Tim Mortimer, 7 Mitch Evers, 8 Brady Cheshire, 9 Mick Toohey, 10 Jacob Bell, 11 Ricky Scott, 12 Bailey Perkins, 13 Jake Mooney