Albeit stoked to come away from Grinsted Oval with a bonus point victory, Orange Emus hooker Tom Goolagong says his side is aware how important backing that up in Saturday's second Blowes Clothing Cup round is.
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The greens battled through injury and soaring temperatures to run over Forbes in the second half last week but with a general bye looming for Easter, Goolagong says picking up a second consecutive win to open the 2019 season is crucial.
"It was a big effort last weekend from everyone and we're really pleased to have got that job done, but we need to back it up this weekend so we can take some momentum into that bye," he said, with his side hosting Dubbo Kangaroos on Saturday.
"It might be early days yet but we saw last year how important these early-season wins can be."
It might be early days yet but we saw last year how important these early-season wins can be.
- Emus hooker Tom Goolagong
He also said it's a matter of pride, the greens wanting to maintain Endeavour Oval's reputation as a nightmare for visiting teams.
"We want teams to not like coming to Endeavour Oval so every year a goal is not to drop a game at home, I think every team has that goal and we do again this year, that starts this weekend," Goolagong said.
Focusing solely on last weekend's performance rather than the result, Goolagong said he and his troops have identified a number of areas they'll look to improve on against Roos, an outfit looking to bounce back from their first-up loss to Bathurst Bulldogs.
"Mainly line-speed and getting a bit more continuity with the ball. We were moving sideways defensively a lot and even though we scored virtually every time we put three or four phases together, we didn't do that as much as we need to," he said.
Simon Badgery and Matt Campbell are both unavailable for the clash, with Sam McLean and TJ Cunynghame coming back into the starting XV, which has been reshuffled as a result.
Five-eighth Jamil Khalfan has been named to take his place in the No.10 jersey too, after leaving the field early in last weekend's win with an ankle complaint.
Kick-off at Endeavour Oval is at 3.15pm, with the two clubs' colts side to do battle afterward under lights from 5pm.
- ORANGE EMUS: 1 Matt Findlay, 2 Tom Goolagong, 3 Steve Fergus, 4 Sam McLean, 5 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 6 Rob Thorburn, 7 Sam Greatbatch, 8 Scott McLean, 9 TJ Cunynghame, 10 Jamil Khalfan, 11 Tom Green, 12 Lachie Harris, 13 Nigel Staniforth (c), 14 Harry Cummins, 15 Louis Carr
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