When the original draw was announced back in November, CYMS were meant to open the season with a blockbuster clash against Dubbo CYMS at Wade Park. Instead, that has been replaced by a 600km round road trip to face Nyngan.

Hawks will now host Dubbo CYMS in their opener.

CYMS' other games against Group 11 teams will be away to Wellington in round 2, away to Dubbo Macquarie in round 10 and home to Parkes in round 14. This means that the CYMS v CYMS match which was meant to welcome the birth of the competition won't take place at all.

But the two Orange sides won't bear the biggest brunt of away trips for Group 10 sides. That honour will go to Cowra and Mudgee, who will travel 2289.6km and 2351.4km respectively in round trips for their seven away matches.

In comparison, Lithgow will travel 1746.6km, CYMS 1601.2km, Hawks 1522.6km, while both Bathurst sides will travel the least of all Group 10 sides, with 1338.8km worth of trips for Panthers and 1314.6km for St Pat's.

Bathurst and Orange sides are helped in this because one of their 'away' matches will take place against their cross-town rival, essentially negating any long travel.

Hawks and Orange CYMS will still clash twice in the season, the first time coming on the weekend of May 7 and 8 in round four, with the second meeting scheduled for July 16/17 in round 13.

Panthers still have some issues with the draws, with club manager Danny Dwyer indicating that the annual ANZAC Day Memorial Trophy should be played at Carrington Park rather than St Pat's due to the rotation system.

St Pat's president Gary Goldsmith said the club will do what they can to make sure Panthers can host the memorial derby.

Panthers are also remaining hopeful that they can play a curtain raiser to the NRL Bathurst match between Penrith and Newcastle on March 26, with the draw currently not catering for it, however, this may be a bit challenging as the fixture is two weeks before the start of the local competition.

The season is expected to kick-off on the weekend of April 9-10, with not a single round one fixture retained from the original draw, except for Forbes Magpies having the bye.

While Wellington Cowboys made its intentions clear last month that it wouldn't be playing in the competition, the 2019 Group 11 premiers have been included in the draw.

Games will be played every weekend onwards, except for general round byes on April 16-17 and June 11-12 for Easter and the long weekend respectively.

All sides will play seven home and away matches, except for Nyngan who will play eight home and six away.

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