Orange CYMS welcome back a handful of injured stars for Sunday's Group 10 premier league clash with the lowly Bathurst St Pat's, which begins a stretch of "pretty much must-win games" in the green and golds' run to the finals.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Damon Goolagong, Joe Duffy, Rob Mortimer and captain-coach Dom Maley all return to the starting side after missing CYMS' last-start loss to Cowra while Kain Earsman comes back onto the bench too, last week's bye providing much-needed respite.
Although Maley said he was hoping to have a few more on deck - the likes of Ben McAlpine and Chris Grevsmuhl, primarily - it's nonetheless a big boost as his side looks to edge back into the finals frame over the next three weeks.
I'd love to be welcoming a few more guys back this weekend but we've got five guys returning so that's certainly a step in the right direction.
- CYMS captain-coach Dom Maley
CYMS are two points adrift of the top five and after the Saints this weekend they face Mudgee and Orange Hawks to finish the regular season, all at home crucially.
"The week off was certainly timely, I'd love to be welcoming a few more guys back this weekend but we've got five guys returning so that's certainly a step in the right direction," Maley said.
"The rest are week-to-week, I don't think anyone's genuinely ruled themselves out for the season and they're all being pretty thorough with their rehab.
"We're hopeful of getting a couple more back next week against Mudgee and then again against Hawks too because we are pretty desperate, they're all pretty much must-win games now. All we can do is try to win and hope the rest takes care of itself in terms of other teams' results though.
"Even when we haven't been at our strongest we've pushed sides like (Bathurst) Panthers and Hawks. Obviously now just pushing sides isn't going to cut it, but even that does give us a confidence boost."
- Are you a Central Western Daily subscriber? Then why not CLICK HERE and join our new Central West Sports Subscribers Facebook group?
The first job at hand is the Saints though. Although St Pat's have lost nine of their last 10 games and their last five on the trot, leading to the club punting captain-coach Luke Branighan, they did beat Maley's men in round one.
"They're still a big threat even though they've not been going that well," Maley said.
"They usually have a pretty good kicking game regardless of who is and isn't playing and they're strength is usually through the middle, through their forwards, so we'll have to work hard to stop that roll-on."
"It's exciting to finish the regular season at Wade Park, it's a pretty good time of year to play footy and I think it'll definitely help us being at home, we'll just have to try and make sure we get the job done and hopefully we'll sneak into the top five.
"We've seen in the last few years you don't necessarily need to finish in the top three with Panthers winning it from fourth last year and Mudgee, unfortunately for us, from fifth in 2016.
"It obviously helps, but we'll just try and sneak into the five and go from there, we've certainly got the belief.
CYMS host St Pat's from 2.30pm at Wade Park on Sunday.
- ORANGE CYMS: 1 Lachie Munro, 2 Jacob Sutherland, 3 Damon Goolagong, 4 Wayne Collett, 5 Trav Adelerhof, 6 Dom Maley, 7 Luke Petrie, 8 Cam Jones, 9 Ryan Griffin, 10 Joe Duffy, 11 Aidan Baker, 12 Ethan Bereyne, 13 Rob Mortimer
WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...