Joey Coughlan one win away from completing a title-winning switch

The former Bathurst City skipper finds himself just one win away from a Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket title as his new club, Orange CYMS, takes on Cavaliers in this weekend's grand final at Wade Park.

For many, it would have been strange seeing Coughlan sporting anything other than red and blue on the cricket pitch but he's already looking right at home in the green and gold.

Even though Coughlan has reached a grand final in his first season with the club his switch wasn't him jumping ship to a team riding a wave of glory.

He joined a CYMS team who a year earlier had suffered nine defeats on their way to a second-last finish on the BODIC ladder and were craving consistency with the bat.

Going into this season CYMS didn't make massive changes to the core of their side either, with the likes of Dave Neil, Rory Daburger, Mac Webster, Hugh Le Lievre and skipper Tom Belmonte all signing up for another go in 2022-23.

But the new opening combination of Coughlan and Will Oldham, the emergence of Charlie Tink and improved batting performances from the rest of the returning crew turned CYMS into an almost unstoppable force.

CYMS didn't drop a game all season until they fell to Cavs in the major semi-final.

Now Coughlan and his side not only get their chance for revenge in the all-Orange finale, but it's an opportunity to complete what would be a brilliant turnaround for the team in the space of a year.

"It's been a really good change. Moving across from Redbacks, where I was captain for five seasons, to now just being a player is a refreshing change because I'm not worrying about the thousand things that a captain has to do," Coughlan said.

"Belmo has got a really good support group behind him and a lot of senior players in the team who put their hands up to help with everything."

Coughlan himself really hit his stride over the back half of the season, striking his first half century for the club in round nine against Rugby Union.

He followed that up with scores of 64, 61 (Bonnor Cup), 38 and then 105 against Orange City.

Coughlan put on 15 in the preliminary final against Rugby but the rest of his team, led by Tink's 124 runs from 287 deliveries, batted for 138 overs to force a draw - good enough to send the team through.

Coughlan said the team were welcoming and supportive as he tried to get himself going at the beginning of the season.

"They've just backed me from the start. They know how I play. Nothing about that changed," he said.

"If I can get them off to a good start then that's great. If not, there's guys like Charlie Tink, Will Oldham, Neilly, Belmo - who is similar to me in that he likes to score quickly - and then it's ridiculous having guys like Mac Webster and Hugh Le Lievre batting nine and 10 on the weekend.

"Everyone's happy to do their job. Everyone has their sights firmly set on the main prize at the end of the year. We've done all the hard work and all those games really add up.

"At Redbacks over the last few years we'd been competitive but we'd often not start years well and then we'd be left fighting for that last finals spot so it's been nice not having to worry about what other teams are doing."

Coughlan's hopeful that CYMS can bring more of the batting form from the preliminary final into the upcoming rematch with Cavs.

"I've been on the opposite end of that a couple of times. It's never fun sitting there in the field waiting for something to happen and it just never does. I feel for them a little bit there, but on the other hand we just outplayed them," he said.

"Tinky batted for almost 300 balls. He's got a great temperament. He loves his cricket. He's always hitting us up for extra sessions. Sometimes you've got to put him on mute," he laughed.

"They're the guys you want in big games. It takes the pressure off me at the top and I can play my own game.

"Us and Cavs have been the best two teams all season. Cavs had come close to us through the year. I thought it would be us two at the end, but you never know in this comp.

"Cavs are a well-rounded team, similar to us, so whoever turns up wanting more will win it. We dropped a lot of catches in that last game against them, and they didn't drop one. We know what we need to do and we'll back ourselves."

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