He coached Orange City to back-to-back unbeaten Blowes Cup premierships but Andy Hillan now calls Endeavour Oval home.
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Hillan will be in the home dugout as Emus' assistant coach on Saturday (May 18) for the first derby of the 2024 season.
While Emus has been the dominant team in Orange for the better part of a decade, Hillan believes the Lions deserve to be favourites.
City sit fifth and Emus fourth on the ladder with just one point separating the rivals.
Emus lost away to Forbes Platypi 27-14 in atrocious conditions while Bathurst Bulldogs were too good for City, winning 29-7.
"You really have to say City are favourites at the moment, sitting where they're sitting," he said.
![Andy Hillan at Endeavour Oval. Picture by Jude Keogh Andy Hillan at Endeavour Oval. Picture by Jude Keogh](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/131358433/280a7e3d-f115-45f3-b8a8-14c100c937fc.JPG/r1541_550_7339_4972_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"So they're looking pretty good from what we can see and obviously Greg Lee's done quite well with them and he analyses the game quite well from all reports.
"It'll be interesting to see where they attack us and what homework they've done.
"If they've done their homework for the last two weeks they would have seen how bad we've been."
Always learning
After coaching at Pride Park he had stints at Kinross Wolaroi School, Molong Magpies and is now heading up representative sides.
He had a season back at City in 2020 before moving across town to as an assistant to Nigel Staniforth.
"My passion is coaching and I wanted to still coach, City didn't need me so I sort of reached out to Emus and they offered me an opportunity, which I'm grateful for," he said.
"The depth of the coaches at Emus is quite good.
"The last two years I've done NSW Country under 16 boys and this year I'm doing NSW Country under 18 girls so I'm always picking up things and willing to learn."
Into the 'cauldron'
Hillan is well placed to talk about the ferocity of the Orange derby.
He played for the Lions in the nineties before taking the coaching reins.
"They're always ferocious, they're hard hitting," he said.
"I guess it's a bit of a cauldron as well, once you're out in the middle it's full on."