It’s been a long, long time since Ben McAlpine’s worn anything but an Orange CYMS jersey, let alone playing against the green and golds.
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In fact the last time he did line up against his junior club was 11 years ago, way back in 2007 when he was in Bathurst Panthers’ Group 10 premier league title-winning side, the last Harry Potter book had just been released, Adam Sandler was still somewhat funny and Donald Trump hadn’t discovered Twitter yet.
He’ll do so for the first time since on Sunday when his Oberon Tigers host CYMS in this year’s first rematch of the 2017 grand final which, of course, McAlpine celebrated winning with the Orange outfit.
Naturally, even though the round four clash is at Oberon Sportsground, he’s expecting a fair bit of stick from his former teammates – all good-natured of course, although disappointed he left CYMS supported McAlpine’s move to Oberon to play with good mate and captain-coach Luke Branighan.
“I’m excited more than anything,” McAlpine, a former Group 10, Western Rams and Country Seconds star, said.
“I never thought I’d have to play against CYMS again but it’ll be good, I’m looking forward to it.”
The Tigers and CYMS head into Sunday’s fourth round in substantially different positions to what many predicted too.
After being branded pre-season title favourites Oberon has suffered losses to Cowra and Bathurst St Pat’s either side of a win over Lithgow and sits seventh, while many predicted CYMS to battle a bit early on after heavy player turnover in the off-season.
Instead, the Mick Sullivan-coached side is unbeaten and on top of the table, despite being somewhat clunky in its victories over Mudgee and Cowra.
“We gelled really well in the pre-season knockouts but it’s been a bit tougher since the season (proper) started,” McAlpine said.
“We’ve had guys in and out which hasn’t helped and I guess it’s all part of being a new side, but we can’t really afford to drop anymore games or we’ll start falling out of touch with the top three, so it’s almost a must-win situation for us.
“There’s not really any weaknesses in CYMS’ side either.”
McAlpine has played five-eighth in the star-studded Tigers’ turbulent start to 2018, which actually started with Branighan being temporarily stood down two weeks before round one, and while he’s been strong in the No.6 jersey he moves back to his more-favoured custodian role this weekend.
Branighan said earlier this week he’s hoping the move can take some pressure to create off his boom recruit, freeing McAlpine up to pick and choose when to inject himself from the back.
In a surprise move former NRL prop Josh Starling has been named to partner Anton Wereta in the halves.
“I definitely prefer it back at fullback,” McAlpine said.
“With Branno being out we haven’t really been able to spark up that combination yet and I actually found it difficult coming in (at five-eighth). Hopefully we can put it together a bit better this weekend.”
Kick-off at Oberon Sportsground is at expected to be around 2pm.
- OBERON TIGERS: 1 Ben McAlpine, 2 Brenton Gibson, 3 Abel Lefaoseu, 4 Jackson Brien, 5 Tyler Hughes, 6 Josh Starling, 7 Anton Wereta, 8 Jake Dawe, 9 Blake Fitzpatrick, 10 Mickey Hawkings, 11 Tui Oloapu, 12 Andy Adams, 13 Dave Sellers; Bench: 14 Luke Christie-Johnston, 15 Nathan Booth, 16 Mike Wicks, 17 Lochie Gilmore.
- ORANGE CYMS: 1 Tom Satterthwaite, 2 Dylan Wood, 3 Joe Lasagavibau, 4 Lachlan Munro, 5 Travis Adelerhof, 6 Luke Petrie, 7 Mick Sullivan, 8 Cam Jones, 9 Ryan Griffin, 10 Joe Duffy, 11 Brock McGarity, 12 Chris Grevsmuhl, 13 Rob Mortimer; Bench: 14 Jerome Harrison, 15 Adam Stanford, 16 Jack Bastick, 17 Tyrone Harrison
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.
