He's been one of Orange Hawks' best in a breakout Group 10 premier league season but sadly for the two blues bullocking front-rower Sam Coyte is expected to miss the next month after injuring his knee in last Saturday night's loss to Bathurst Panthers.
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Coyte came from the field in the 15th minute of the top-of-the-table showdown and was visibly restricted in limping off Carrington Park, although at that point Hawks' medical staff suspected a hamstring issue rather than a knee injury.
He did return to the fray midway through the second half to try and give his side's go-forward, provided largely by front-row partner Ethan McKellar's mammoth performance, but pulled up lame not long after going back on, he was carried off with six minutes to go.
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Coyte confirmed his medial ligament injury on Friday morning and while disappointed, simply saying "that's footy" and explained he should be fit to return for the finals, if not a week earlier in Hawks' final-round local derby against Orange CYMS.
He'll leave a big hole in Hawks' front-row rotation - literally and figuratively - with Dean Vete to fill it in Sunday's trip to Blayney's King George Oval to face the Bears.
Vete's been strong from the bench in somewhat of a breakout season of his own. Forced to play bigger minutes than usual against Panthers last week he was solid, his enthusiasm, line-speed and communication in defence was noteworthy.
Hawks captain-coach Willie Heta's been forced to reshuffle his powerful back-row this weekend too, with Talon Hodge unavailable.
The versatile Jared Brodrick, who's either played centre or acted as a utility from the bench this year, moves into Hodge's edge forward role, with Lawrence Fogg slotting into the centres.
In Hawks' only other change from last weekend's 18-16 loss to the defending premiers and competition favourites boom hooker Alex Prout has been named on the bench, with Ethan Monk to start at dummy-half.
Hawks take on Blayney from 1.40pm on Sunday, at King George Oval.
- ORANGE HAWKS: 1 Duncan Young, 2 Eman Rodriguez, 3 Corey Brown, 4 Lawrence Fogg, 5 Jordan Baker, 6 Willie Heta, 7 Matt Boss, 8 Ethan McKellar, 9 Ethan Monk, 10 Dean Vete, 11 Rakai Tuheke, 12 Jared Brodrick, 13 Nathan Potts; Bench: 14 Brett Morgan, 15 Jack Aumuller, 16 Tom Blimka, 17 Alex Prout
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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.
