Orange City slumped to its fourth loss in the opening six rounds of the 2017 Blowes Clothing Cup on Saturday, an opportunistic Forbes racing out 36-5 winners at Grinsted Park.
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Forced to defend for the majority of the contest, Orange City was essentially suffocated out of the match thanks to the clinical Platypi.
The Lions now boast 10 competition points and sit in seventh on the ladder – the lowest rung of the competition the club’s first grade side has occupied this season.
Parkes is currently in fifth spot on 17 points, while competition leaders Emus have accrued 30 to date – the maximum points after six rounds.
Lions coach Steve Hamson said he was confident of turning things around, with games against CSU Bathurst and Mudgee – both clubs are winless – and Parkes rounding out the 2017’s opening round.
“I’d like to think we’ve been played sides at will feature at the top or near-to the semis at the end of the year, now we’re into sides in a similar position to us and struggling to get some wins on the board,” he said.
Hamson praised his side’s effort at Forbes, but the Platypi, a side now third on the ladder, were just too classy.
The premiership-winning mentor reserved special praise for his pack, one that proved dominant at scrum time against a Platypi pack including Country prop Charlie French.
Hamson said Ben Swaddling, Scott Smith and Chris Senior had an outstanding games, while Duncan Young was the Lions’ lone try-scorer – his five-pointer little more than consolation though.
“We battled, but we didn’t get any chocolates,” Hamson continued.
“We defended for probably a large part of the game and when we did get the ball, we were that shagged from defending you look for the easy option and we’d kick it back to them with no real purpose, I guess, that was the tale of the day.
“As far as the effort went, and the amount of defending we did, I think everyone was pretty proud.”
Hamson believes Forbes isn’t doing anything special at the moment with the ball – but that’s not a bad thing.
They’re playing simplistic, and it’s working for them.
“They play simple footy and do it well, and we’re trying to play simple footy and we’re not doing it well,” he added.