Orange Emus stalwart Dave Ash has had plenty of success in the bottle green, he’s played in more than a dozen grand finals and won about half of those over his many, many years with the club.
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Incredibly though, he’s never made a grand final appearance at Endeavour Oval.
The 42-year-old front-rower will finally do that on Saturday morning, when his Emus take on the powerhouse Bathurst Bulldogs in the Blowes Clothing Cup third grade decider.
“I prefer not to think about it until the day of the game really, but it will be a little bit special, I’m really pumped for it,” Ash said.
“Mark Kingham’s the same. He moved away for a while, but he’s played in a lot of grand finals but never in one at home. I guess it’s nice we’ll get to share that first one together too.”
Naturally, Ash said, winning would be the perfect way to cap the occasion off.
“Well I had to lose nine grand finals before I won one, so I know how bad that feeling is,” Ash laughed.
“Of course winning’s what we want. It probably isn’t the biggest grand final a few of us have played in, being in third grade, but it’s still a massive game and a big day for the club so we want to kick it off in the right way.
“There’s reason for confidence too, we’ve beaten Bulldogs once this year. I think we just need to match it with them in the forwards, they’ve got some good players there, that’ll go a long way to us winning.”
The occasion for Ash and Kingham isn’t lost on Emus coach Steve Levett either.
“It’s a big day for those guys, and a few others too who have been with the club for a long time,” Levett, who coached the greens’ second XV to a grand final in 2016, said.
“Bulldogs have beaten us twice this year but we’re here, we’ve given ourselves a chance and that’s half the battle. We just need to take that chance now.
“We’re fielding probably the strongest side we have all season and we’re also pleased to have had a few hard hit-outs in recent weeks, whereas I don’t think Dogs have played since mid-July. That probably works in our favour.
“The 9.30am kick-off isn’t ideal for us, by any means, but it’s something we have to deal with and Bulldogs do too. Whatever happens, I think it’s going to be a cracking game and an entertaining one too,”
Kick-off in the third grade decider is at 9.30am at Endeavour Oval.
- ORANGE EMUS: 1 Steve Fergus, 2 Mark Grivas, 3 Paul Ringland, 4 Stu Brisbane, 5 Brenton Anthony, 6 Chris Bailey, 7 Tom MacSmith, 8 Tom Fenualelei, 9 Matt Ripps, 10 Nik Granger, 11 Derek Thompson, 12 Ki Williams, 13 Alex Low, 14 James Millner, 15 Claude Dennis; Bench: 16 Dave Ash, 17 Brandon Akerstrom, 18 Mark Kingham, 19 Peter Brus, 20 Matt Pierce, 21 Liam Finnane, 22 James Dellow, 23 Cam Porter, 24 Brendan Stuart, 25 Louis Carr, 26 Anthony Shortis
- BATHURST BULLDOGS: 1 Dale Norris, 2 Tim Booby, 3 Jake Mitchell, 4 Matthew Smith, 5 Henry Francis, 6 Jock Suttor, 7 Sam Maher, 8 Michael Weekes, 9 Sam Markwick, 10 Jack Gunther, 11 Reece Issa, 12 Josh Lee, 13 Brenton Gibson, 14 Toby Faraway, 15 Tyson Smith; Bench: 16 Chris Plunkett, 17 Jared Sheppeard, 18 Izaak Breen, 19 Robert Austin, 20 Lachlan Bull, 21 Brendan Robinson, 22 Dane Fitzpatrick, 23 William Barnett, 24 Tim Fagan, 25 Stephen Beath, 26 Patrick Crawford, 27 Charlie Sharwood
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.
