The last few years have been pretty productive for Orange Emus, across the Blowes Clothing Cup’s grades they’ve won a title in all of the past four seasons, but for flanker Jack Marchinton they’ve been undeniably “frustrating”.
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The 24-year-old has consistently shown glimpses of his best in recent years but as soon as he’d hit his straps and force his way into the top grade, he’d break down, more than once being ruled out for extended stints.
So you can imagine how pleasing 2018’s been for him so far, after a big off-season the somewhat diminutive but startling strong flanker has cemented his spot on the side of Emus’ scrum and been the side’s best across its six-game unbeaten start to the season.
“Touch wood I can stay fit, because the injuries have been frustrating,” he said.
“I made a big effort over the summer to get a bit fitter, a bit stronger, so it’s nice so far to have been able to string more than a couple of games together and get a bit of consistency.
“The club’s been really strong across the board the last few years so it’s nice to have been part of a winning culture in any grade, but first grade’s always where I’ve wanted to be consistently rather than as a fill-in, and I’ve enjoyed being able to really try and cement my spot this year.
“It’s early days though, hopefully I can stay fit and hang on to that spot.”
If he keeps playing the way he has been, he won’t have any trouble doing that, Marchinton’s regularly picked up his side’s three best and fairest points and players’ player awards, along with two of Central West Rugby Union’s newly-introduced player-of-the-day gongs.
“It’s just about doing my job for the team and helping us get over the line for me, but I do feel like I’ve been playing reasonably well. There’s always room for improvement though, you can always get better,” he said.
“It helps when you’ve got a lot of good players around you and that’s certainly something we have a lot of at the moment, good players.”
Marchinton and his Emus face Bulldogs for the second time this season on Saturday, the return fixture at Ashwood Park after the greens outlasted the Bathurst side to win 33-12 at Endeavour Oval in round two.
The Bathurst outfit has lost just once since and, as Marchinton said, will have “extra motivation” with Saturday being the club’s Memorial Day, they’ll wear one-off Indigenous jerseys designed by No.8 Peter Fitzsimmons.
“It’ll be tough, they really put it to us [in round two] and they’ve got plenty to play for this weekend, not that we buy into that kind of hype too much,” Marchinton said.
“We’re confident in what we can do and our systems, we’ve sort of been focusing on getting that right for long periods of time and letting the result take care of itself.
“It has so far and we’re pretty pleased to still be undefeated in such a strong competition, those early points will be important I think, but I still don’t think we’ve really been 100 per cent yet. I actually think our best is yet to come.”
That’s a pretty ominous message Marchinton sent his side’s rivals, considering the greens are unbeaten and 10 points – two bonus point wins – clear on top of the table, Bulldogs are second.
Saturday has an added benefit for Marchinton too, it gives him another chance to face-off against good mate Harry Webber, who returns to the Bathurst side after missing last week’s win over Cowra thanks the NSW Country duties.
“We spent a fair bit of time together on a gap year after school, so yeah, we’re pretty good mates,” Marchinton said.
“When he linked with Bulldogs last year we didn’t actually get the chance to play against each other, so it was nice to do that in round two and I’m looking forward to it again on the weekend.
“He’s playing really well and I was really happy for him when he got picked in the NSW Country squad, I’m interested to see what more he’s got to bring to the table on Saturday.”
Fitzsimmons returns to Bulldogs’ side too while Nick Hughes-Clapp and Tom Green come back into the greens’ starting XV, all three were also at the Cockatoos’ camp last weekend.
Kick off at Bathurst’s Ashwood Park is at 3.15pm on Saturday afternoon.
- ORANGE EMUS: 1 Matt Findlay, 2 Tom Goolagong, 3 Nas Havealeta, 4 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 5 Harry Hamilton, 6 Jack Marchinton, 7 Jayden Norris, 8 Scott McLean, 9 Will Mortimer, 10 TJ Cunynghame, 11 Tom Green, 12 Lachie Harris, 13 Levi Russell, 14 Aidan Baker, 15 Nigel Staniforth (c)