Orange CYMS player-coach Mick Sullivan was the first to admit last week’s effort in the Group 10 qualifying final wasn’t good enough, but he’s hoping it’s served its purpose and restoked the fire in his troops’ bellies.
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The green and golds were “flat” in their 22-12 defeat at the hands of Hawks, and host Bathurst Panthers in Saturday’s sudden-death minor semi-final as a result.
“We just didn't turn up (last week) and we were seething a little bit afterwards,” Sullivan admitted.
“So yeah, I would hope it’s got the boys ready to go, we’ll just have to wait and see I guess.”
Panthers won through to the minor semi by ending Oberon’s season in a brutal elimination final last weekend.
“I’m not sure if it was have taken a toll (physically) on Panthers or not, because that can go both ways and galvanize a side, harden them, and I don’t think they have anyone out from that game either,” Sullivan said.
“From all accounts they played well against Oberon so we’ll just have to be a lot better than we were (against Hawks).
“It was just attitude more than anything, as I said we just didn’t turn up.
“We need to be better through the middle and our back three should be better on the back of that.
“They’re on the road every week now if they want to go further and that’s tough, but because we’ve got them in the first week of that I’m not sure how big an impact it’ll have. It’s good we’re at home though.
“It’s do-or-die, so it has to come this weekend.”
Sullivan’s named the same side that was beaten by Hawks last weekend although former NRL star Chris Grevsmuhl remains under an injury cloud.
He left the field late in last weekend’s second-versus-third clash and was visibly hampered prior to that too.
“You could tell he wasn’t 100 per cent, he tried to go through it for us though,” Sullivan said.
“I’m not actually sure on Chris, we’ll get to training [on Friday night] and we’ll go from there.”
Saturday’s minor semi-final at Wade Park kicks off at 2.15pm, under-18 league tag kicks the day off at 9.45am.
- ORANGE CYMS: 1 Lachie Munro, 2 Travis Adelerhof, 3 Joe Lasagavibau, 4 Dom Maley, 5 Semisi Tupou, 6 Luke Petrie, 7 Mick Sullivan, 8 Cam Jones ©, 9 Ryan Griffin, 10 Kyle Fraser, 11 Brock McGarity, 12 Chris Grevsmuhl, 13 Matt Penny; Bench: 14 Adam Stanford, 15 Rob Mortimer, 16 Jerome Harrison, 17 Joe Duffy
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.
