Sophie McCauley didn't play for Bathurst in that NSW Combined High Schools defeat and it was her short-corner goal on full-time that forced Friday's deadlock, after which Shea didn't hold back in bringing to the fore what he thought were officiating inconsistencies.

That led to frustration from his troops, who Shea said "were the better side" but "didn't get the opportunity to get the reward".

"How do you work that out, a team goes from a 10-nil win to a 1-all draw?," Shea said.

"It wasn't to do with them being nervous, it was them trying to deal with the frustration of trying to interpret what was going on.

"The rules were changing, we can't cope with [that]. It was inconsistent and we were getting frustrated and it's embarrassing.

"The Bathurst girls defended fairly, but I think there were things that weren't fair. For the sake of an Astley Cup game, that's just embarrassing.

"The only time in the game when the umpire goes and gets the ball is with 30 seconds to go when Bathurst were in attack. Explain that to me.

"Our girls were the better side and we didn't get the opportunity to get the reward."

There was no denying the Hornets had the better of Friday morning's clash in terms of performance and they did have plenty of chances outside the one co-captain Eva Reith-Snare drilled into the back of the net with 11 minutes to go, in fact it was McCauley who four times cleared from her side's line after Orange short corners.

Shea had given the Bathurst side due credit for their defensive effort, and incredibly McCauley was a relative rookie in the role she played on Friday too.

"I liked the challenge, I've never done the postie before, I'm normally a runner. I think it's probably more nerve racking running out, because on the post you just sit there and have to trap the ball," she explained.

The result strengthened Bathurst's position in the overall scheme too. They'd held a 62-point overnight lead in terms of the competition's second leg and that remained the same after the 1-all draw resulted in a 50-50 points split.

Although it was a narrow margin Orange actually cut into with a 1-nil boys' football win it wasn't one the hosts were expected to hold at all following the hockey, most assumed the Hornets would win well and eat into or completely eradicate the buffer.

"As much as the pressure was on us (in terms of the cup leg), they had beaten us 10-nil, so really the pressure was on them to do that again," McCauley said.

"I was talking to a few of our girls before the game and our attitude was that we'll just see how they play and go from there. That's what we did.

"For that corner I was just like 'I need to put this thing into the back of the net, I just need to hit it'. You don't really think, it was like 'woah, have I just done that?'. It was a bit overwhelming, it still hasn't sunk in."