This Saturday is do or die for the Blayney Bears under 18’s and league tags sides, and both coaches believe that their sides are well prepared to march forward.
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For under 18’s coach Cameron Hobby, his side has only faced Mudgee once this season, their second match was cancelled due to the snow, but he’s determined that they will repeat the result from their first meeting.
“We won pretty convincingly, 28-6 against them for the first match of the year,” he said. “So we’re heading to Bathurst with a fair bit of confidence.”
What concerns Hobby is that in the last half of the season Mudgee have been performing very well, and not having played them twice, the Dragons are a bit of a mystery bag.
“I don’t know what to expect from them,” he said, “They struggled a bit during the middle of the year but recently they’ve picked up and have been going quite well.”
Despite entering the finals coming off two losses, one against CYMS and another off Panthers, Hobby said that there were a few positives to take out of each game.
“Our defence is certainly our strong point at the moment and that’s come clear over the past two weeks,” he said.
League tag
When the Blayney Bears and Orange CYMS league tag teams last met, it was a game that had had Bear’s supporters and players rejoicing, but left CYMS doubtless with a fire in their belly and a strong desire to get beat the Bears in this Saturday’s semi-final.
For coach Steve Mooney this Saturday’s match will see the two sides enter Carrington Park as equal combatants.
“It’s going to be a very close match,” he said, “After the last match I think that they really want to beat us”
If successful, the taggers will play the losing side in the Panthers and Hawks clash.
In the last match of the season the Bear’s went down to the Panthers 24-4, but Mooney believes that his side will be able to withstand the CYMS once again.
“If we play like we did in the first half of last week’s match we’ll win the game,” he said, “A couple of people took dummies in the second half when they shouldn’t have, but that’s just part of the game.”
With the recent CYMS match fresh in his mind, Mooney knows where CYMS weak spot is, and how he plans to exploit it.
“On the edges is where they’re weak, and we’re really strong,” he said.
The finals are this Saturday at Carrington Park with the league Tag playing at 3.50pm followed by the under 18’s.
Mark Logan
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
