Tegan Dray will be hoping to squeeze out every advantage she can muster as Orange High School continues its dream of Astley Cup glory against Dubbo College this week.
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The school's netball team was the only side to taste victory two weeks ago when they completed one day of action against Bathurst High School.
But Dray knows that anything can change with a home crowd behind you.
"The home tie advantage is massive," Orange's netball coach said.
"You've got your supporters, you know your grounds, you have that advantage over the other visiting teams and sometimes people don't travel well especially if they're sick or injured."
Dubbo beat Bathurst when the two schools met last week. This means that if the college beats Orange across the two days, then they will take home the cup for the first time since 2011.
The home-town contingent are determined not to let that happen.
"We're always hopeful and we want to maximise the amount of points we get and also minimise any points against," Dray said.
"We always talk about how every sport matters and every point matters as much as possible, so even if you're down you keep fighting, fighting, fighting because all the points you could win back really do matter overall at the end.
"So hopefully we'll get into a position where we're ahead in all of our sports which would be fantastic."
If Orange are able to beat Dubbo, then they stand an outside chance of winning the cup without the need for a tiebreaker. That will be determined in the first week of term three, when the second day of action that was snowed out against Bathurst will take place. If Orange can't pull off the comeback - Bathurst currently leads Orange 256-144 - then it will come down to the points totals from all three schools.
Tuesday's schedule of sports will start with hockey in Glenroi at 9.30am followed by rugby league at Wade Park at 11am. Following those will be netball (1pm) and basketball (2.20pm) at the PCYC.
- READ MORE: Orange Emus disposed of Orange City 26-15 in a closely-fought Westfund Ferguson Cup clash
- Dray said it's key to get off to a good start.
"It's very, very important and it gives that little boost," she said.
"Our hockey team has traditionally been pretty strong but they haven't played this Dubbo team and we know they have a few gun players, so the girls will be looking to start us off really strong and our rugby league boys will do their very best as well.
"We have played Dubbo in a few sports so far but some are unknown, so I can't really pick out any sports in particular because every school and their team changes from year to year.
"Bathurst has always been traditionally strong in soccer, so I know both soccer teams will be looking to put in stronger performances this tie as well."
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