The Bears haven't tasted victory through the opening 14 rounds of the season, the club's last top grade win was back in round 16 of last year - almost 12 months ago to the day, in fact - and since their last finals appearance in 2015, they've just 10 of 60 games.

Eight of those wins came in 2016 when the Bears finished sixth as well, which was Hirini's first year at the club. He returned to Orange Emus in the 15-man code the year after before rejoining the Bears in 2018, and his performance since has been one of the club's highlights during a lean period.

This year in particular, Hirini's been strong whether at the back or at five-eighth, where he'll play this weekend. Another of the highlights of the Bears' 2019 campaign has been veteran half Steve Lane's left-edge combination with Robert Lane.

"It's definitely helped having Laney back in the mix, even though we've not won a game his experience has been good for the group," Hirini said.

"It's been a tough year, a tough couple of years really, but there's still plenty of motivation there. We'd love to knock a couple of teams off in the last month and finish the season on a bit of a high."

Hirini wasn't too proud to admit there's been a number of points this year, the Bears' pair of drubbings at the hands of Mudgee - 66-22 in round three and 68-nil in round 12 - among them.

But he also highlighted a handful of games where they've run with the competition's heavyweights, at least for substantial periods of games.

"We've matched it with some of the best sides in the competition at different times, I think fitness has just let us down a lot," Hirini said.

Their best performance of the year was undoubtedly in their 26-12 loss to Cowra in round 12, which came on the road at Sid Kallas Oval too.

They stuck with second-placed Orange Hawks at Wade Park in round seven too, although the two blues went on to win 34-22 the Bears trailed by just six late in the second half.

"I actually though we missed a trick in that game against Hawks. They weren't at their best, admittedly, but that and the Cowra game was probably as close to an 80-minute performance as we've produced and if we'd executed a bit better we probably could've won that one," he said.

"Fitness was an issue there though, we gassed in the last 10 minutes or so of both halves."

Blayney host Hawks in the return match on Sunday afternoon and Hirini said he's hopeful his Bears can produce a similar, or better, performance at home.

Although they've been out of finals contention for some time they face Hawks, Bathurst Panthers, Oberon and Bathurst St Pat's in the last month and could have a say in the make-up of the top five if they produce an upset or two.

"We're not focused on playing a spoiling role or anything like that, we'd just like to finish on a high," he said.

"We've run with Hawks this year so hopefully we can do that again, and with St Pat's ahead of us on the table (in eighth) I think we'll look at that game as one we can definitely have a real crack at."

Blayney hosts Hawks, who will be missing stars Talon Hodge and Sam Coyte, at King George Oval from 1.40pm.