LITHGOW Workies supporters rallied behind the embattled club at Tuesday night's crisis meeting with Group 10 officials, vowing to fight on and become the force that has played in seven premier league grand finals in the last 11 seasons.
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Lithgow forfeited their round-three clash with Orange CYMS at Wade Park, sparking wide-spread outrage that a club with the stature Workies has could simply wilt after such a successful 2015 campaign.
The club says played numbers are down, while suspension also prevented some of the club's best players playing in early round losses to Bathurst St Pat's and Oberon.
But, with a capacity crowd joining players from all grades, juniors from both the Lithgow Storm and Wallerawang clubs and Group 10's Gary Norton and Country Rugby League Western regional manager Peter Clarke, Workies prop Chris Rhodes indicated the group was determined to fight on throughout the 2016 season.
Speaking for the player group in the absence of captain-coach Jono Van Veen - he's currently with family in Melbourne - Rhodes wanted to make it clear it was the players' decision to forgot he points in Orange last week.
"After our game against Oberon, on the Thursday training session we only had 11 players after four or five of our players had being injured and we still had ongoing suspension troubles," Rhodes said.
"We were not about to call up five or six Under 18s and play them against a side like CYMS.
"We already had juniors Nic Miller and Connor Legge on the bench in our games and they were doing a great job, but to have another three or four youngsters, it would not be fair to CYMS, our juniors or us.
"The Under 18s also had their injury and suspension troubles and it would be a tough ask for the boys to play their Under 18 game and then back up as starting players in premier league.
"Our thoughts were to get past this game and then have the bye and hopefully we would get some troops back for the game against Cowra."
The club voiced its concern about the player drain, which will continue to be an issue at the club throughout the 2016 season.
Officials said employment in Lithgow had dropped dramatically over the past three years with a lot of the younger players having to leave the area to gain work or go to university, while an emphasis on buying imports and not looking after their local products resulted in a flood of players leaving to play with New Era Cup sides Lithgow Giants and Portland.
The club also formed a retention/recruitment committee with Rhodes, Paul Glasson, Steve Lang and Bill Ranse volunteering to work with the executive in a bid to sign players for following years.
