With one side gunning to cement the minor premiership and the other desperately fighting to keep their 2019 season alive, Sunday's Group 10 premier league local derby has the potential to be one of the great all-Orange grudge matches.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Leading Bathurst Panthers on points difference Hawks remain in the box seat to claim that minor title and with it major semi-final hosting rights, while CYMS are one point adrift of the top five and must win or they'll fall out of finals contention.
Granted, even with a win on Sunday the green and golds will still need to take down Mudgee should their postponed, round 17 game be rescheduled and played next week, but as captain-coach Dom Maley said, at least "the dream is still alive".
WATCH: Check out the Group 10 premier league season ladder ahead of Sunday's final round...
That dream looked dead as recently as noon on Thursday, before Country Rugby League stepped in and Group 10 sensationally back-flipped on their decision to award no competition points should that game not be played prior to Sunday's final round.
"That's not in the players' hands now though, so we won't think about it. The dream is still alive, but we can only control what happens on Sunday now so that's the only focus," Maley said, highlighting some other contributing factors that make the derby "a pretty huge game".
"We're obviously fighting for fifth and they're still in a battle for the minor premiership, but it's the last round, it's our Old Boys' Day and obviously local derbies are massive in their own right, so it's exciting.
"From their perspective they'll want that minor premiership. I think they've still got a couple of guys out so it'd be a pretty timely week off and hosting that major semi-final is a pretty big carrot dangling there, but we're not thinking about that. We're focusing on us, what we can do and we're going out there on Sunday to win."
The ladder - Hawks are 24 points clear of CYMS - makes it appear as though Sunday's derby could be lopsided, but it would take a brave person to predict a two blues' blowout, all things considered.
The first derby of the year was a thriller, with Ethan McKellar scoring a go-ahead try in the 70th minute that ultimately secured Hawks' 30-24 victory, a result that suggests the gap between the two sides isn't as big as those standings indicate.
On top of that, after an injury-ravaged season Maley will finally have an all-but full-strength outfit at his disposal, but for those players who's injuries are season-enders.
"We've had a year where you could easily say 'what if this, what if that, what if we hadn't had all those injuries' but we're fielding what is basically our strongest side this weekend so any excuse we could find in that goes out the window," Maley said.
Maley's been able to name the likes of Joseph Ualesi, Chris Grevsmuhl, Steve Morris and Tim Mortimer, all of whom have battled injury throughout the season but have made timely returns in recent weeks.
Although he admitted consistency in combinations might be lacking somewhat, Maley said he's confident their experience will make up for that and more than anything he's excited to see what this CYMS side can produce on the club's biggest day of 2019 so far.
"We've still got a couple out but at this time of year I think every side does, that's the nature of the game, and those combinations might not be absolutely perfect because we've not had this side together week-to-week, I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with this side on the paddock," he said.
Maley said, based on what he's seen this week at training, CYMS are more than capable of producing an upset too, and a stoic defensive performance from their left edge will go a long way to inspiring that.
- Are you a Central Western Daily subscriber? Then why not CLICK HERE and join our new Central West Sports Subscribers Facebook group?
With Hawks' captain-coach and five-eighth Willie Heta pulling the strings, the two blues' right-side combination of edge back-rower Rakai Tuheke, centre Corey Brown and winger Jordan Baker has been absolutely electric this season.
Just a fortnight ago they contributed eight of the two blues' 12 tries in a 60-point hammering of fourth-placed Lithgow Workies, a scintillating example among many exciting performances throughout this year.
That's not to say there's no danger in the middle or on the left edge, by any means, but ahead of the post-season Heta, Tuheke, Brown and Baker shape as the most dangerous quartet in the competition.
"With guys like Rakai and Corey running off Willie, and then Jordan Baker finishing outside them, they've been pretty potent down that side so we'll have to work hard defensively to try and keep them quiet," Maley said, although he kept a lid on who'll be charged with doing so.
"They might have lost a bit of size this year but it's not necessarily been a bad thing for them, they've been more mobile and their middles can get a roll on if you let them.
"They've taken a couple of years to develop under Willie with Bobby (Wykamp) helping out and they've been the best side throughout this regular season, so it's going to be seriously tough, but we're looking forward to testing ourselves against the benchmark at this time of year.
"The table might suggest it'll be lopsided, but I'm confident if we go out there and execute we're definitely capable of producing an upset."
Eman Rodriguez returns to the wing for Hawks after missing last weekend's hammering of Bathurst St Pat's, while Jared Brodrick moves back into the centres after playing back-row against the Saints. Sam Coyte remains sidelined with a knee injury, but is expected to be back for the finals.
Sunday's premier league derby kicks off at 2.30pm, with under-18 league tag opening a bumper day of all-Orange grudge matches from 9.30am at Wade Park.
- ORANGE CYMS: 1 Lachie Munro, 2 Travis Adelerhof, 3 Dom Maley, 4 Damon Goolagong, 5 Tyrell Charters, 6 Steve Morris, 7 Luke Petrie, 8 Cam Jones, 9 Ryan Griffin, 10 Joe Duffy, 11 Chris Grevsmuhl, 12 Ethan Bereyne, 13 Tim Mortimer; Bench: 14 Aiden Baker, 15 Kain Earsman, 16 Robbie Mortimer, 17 Joseph Ualesi
- ORANGE HAWKS: 1 Duncan Young, 2 Eman Rodriguez, 3 Corey Brown, 4 Jared Brodrick, 5 Jordan Baker, 6 Willie Heta, 7 Matt Boss, 8 Ethan McKellar, 9 Alex Prout, 10 Dean Vete, 11 Rakai Tuheke, 12 Talon Hodge, 13 Nathan Potts; Bench: 14 Ethan Monk, 15 Brett Morgan, 16 Jack Aumuller
WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...