He's been waiting nearly two years to chalk up a win as Orange CYMS' captain-coach, and on Sunday afternoon in front of a packed Wade Park crowd, Daniel Mortimer finally captured that elusive victory.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And for it to come in a derby was all the more sweeter.
The green and golds held off several early onslaughts from the Hawks, before signing off on a 42-18 demolition as the likes of Ethan Bereyne, Addison Williams, and Mortimer stood out for the home side.
The skipper would be well within his rights to crack open a few beers after such a relieving result, but the 31-year-old quickly reminded himself that there's still so much for his side to work on.
"We're putting good parts of footy together, but we're still struggling in parts as well," Mortimer said.
"We're still far from being an 80-minute team, but we're definitely putting some patches together that we can be pretty proud of.
"Any derby win feels good. We were only one game in having lost our first match to Panthers, so it was nice to rectify that tonight," he said.
While he was happy to see 42 points on the board, he knows that on another afternoon, they might not be able to get away with leaking 18.
"They got momentum and put three tries on us," he said.
"We still let in a few points. Lucky our attack was on today but a lot of the time, if you give up 20 points, there's a few of those games you're not winning.
"I was happy with the defence overall, but there's still a lot to improve."
Mortimer was impressed with several of his players, but wasn't sure what he was going to get out of Bereyne after the first few exchanges.
"He's a mixed bag, Ethan," he said.
"He started with a penalty conceded and a lost ball. I was thinking 'ah, what are we in for today?' But, he was great today.
"He did his job really well. He used his size. There were a couple of small boys on that edge who we wanted to exploit."
Hawks had the bulk of the attacking chances in the opening 10 minutes, but it was the bulldozing Bereyne who cashed in on CYMS' first chance with the ball, charging onto a short pass from Mortimer to crash over the line.
Addison Williams added the extras, something he did after all seven of CYMS' tries.
It was again the two blues who were knocking on the door, when an attacking miscue allowed CYMS to pick up the ball and run 90 metres, before Bereyne cashed in again, this time a few metres wider than his first try.
It looked as though the first two meat pies might have taken some wind out of Hawks' sails, and CYMS' fullback Lachie Munro capitalised on that as he evaded a few defenders before pouncing under the sticks from close range in the 34th minute.
The final try of the half was easily the most impressive as a set piece from the scrum just 10 metres out gave Addison Williams a clear path to the corner - he again slotted the conversion.
It was more of the same in the second stanza as youngster Josh Board launched himself out of dummy half and over the try line in the 45th minute.
Hawks needed someone to inject a bit of life into the contest, and that's exactly what second rower Talon Hodge did when he plucked a cross-field bomb out of the air in spectacular fashion, falling over the line to bring the margin to 30-4.
Willie Heta was next to draw blood in the 60th minute as he produced a bit of wizardry from close range, twirling past what felt like three CYMS' defenders to score under the sticks.
Daniel Mortimer's maiden try in the top grade ensued as a kick out of dummy-half took a deflection, only to bounce into the hands of the captain.
Hawks' Marcel Ikinofo got on the board as finished off the work put in by Toby Westcott who took an intercept while defending his goal-line before running 50 metres.
Jack Buchanan barged over for the green and golds final try, before Jordan Baker put a consolation on the board for Hawks on the stroke of full-time.
"I thought we started well. They had plenty of energy and they defended well and I thought they disturbed us," Hawks' captain-coach Willie Heta said.
"Once they got points it was hard to stop the bleeding."
Alex Prout and Jordan Baker were both denied tries in the opening exchanges, something that drastically changed the complexion of the first half.
"When you get try-scoring moments you would expect to execute but it wasn't to be," he said.
"They were better in those moments throughout the 80 minutes than what we were."
It's never pleasing for a coach to see his side leak 42 points, and that's the area Heta plans to attack at training.
"It's defensive structure... it's something that we work on every week. Our attack was there but we're going to have to show a bit of maturity."
ORANGE CYMS 42 (Tries; Ethan Bereyne 2, Lachie Munro, Addison Williams, Josh Board, Daniel Mortimer, Jack Buchanan. Conversions; Addison Williams 7) defeated ORANGE HAWKS 18 (tries; Talon Hodge, Willie Heta, Marcel Ikinofo, Jordan Baker. Conversions; Toby Westcott 2)
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.centralwesterndaily.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
HAVE YOUR SAY
Send us a letter to the editor using the form below
Send us a letter to the editor using the form below ...