Orange CYMS righted some of the wrongs from their round one loss at Blayney's King George Oval on Friday afternoon, securing their first win of the 2019 Group 10 premier league season over a fighting Bears outfit.
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Early indications suggested an absolute thumping might be likely after Jarred Tyack and Lachie Munro crossed in the opening stages and, after the Bears forced two repeat sets back-to-back but couldn't capitalise, Josh Burke scored for the green and golds again at the 15-minute mark.
McAlpine slotted two conversions to give the visitors a 16-nil lead in as many minutes but, as Maley said, the green and golds began forcing the issue to build on their lead and a number of attacking chances petered into nothing as a result.
With veteran pivot Steve Lane pulling the strings the Bears rolled back into the game as errors crept into CYMS' performance, cutting the gap to just six points through Ryley Oborn and Lhiam Burrell.
The green and golds found their groove again late in the opening period through, with Steve Morris, McAlpine and Adelerhof all crossing in a five-minute, three-try blitz which pushed their lead out to 32-10 at the break.
That margin was extended to 28 when Adelerhof waltzed over for his second nine minutes into the second half, halfway through Blayney lock Joey Hobby's stint in the sin bin, he was given 10 after holding Burke down in a tackle following a 44th-minute line break.
CYMS created plenty more chances and Blayney's errors and lack of discipline gifted them a few too, but they butchered several and, to the hosts' credit, the Bears held them out a number of occasions through sheer will-power.
Blayney actually scored next through Robert Lane, who latched onto a Steve Lane chip and chase with a tick over 20 to go and with the score at 38-16 the Bears did somewhat threaten a late surge.
Lane looked dangerous with every touch and fullback Carter Hirini did too, but any potential comeback was derailed when Travis Warinara was sent off for striking in the 70th minute.
CYMS' defence held too, and McAlpine finished the job by scoring his second and converting in just before the full-time whistle.
"It is a little bit disappointing we couldn't really finish it off and put them away, the second half was only 12-6, so we'd like to do a bit more in that situation I think," Maley said.
"But Blayney hung in there, they were down to 12 for 20 minutes so they certainly deserve some credit for keeping us to that scoreline."
The Bears did show enough to suggest they'll cause teams problems in 2019, when they managed to string some sets together they looked dangerous with, on top of Lane and Hirini, lock Joey Hobby and winger Nelson Daplan asking plenty of questions of CYMS' line.
But as coach Ben McKenna highlighted, the result was never likely to fall in Blayney's favour when they gave away "cheap penalties" and played a man down for the bulk of the second half.
"There is positive signs and we've got quite a bit to work with out here but we need to control the ball a bit more, we made a lot of errors and gave away plenty of cheap penalties too, that really hurt us," McKenna said.
"We had one in the bin and one sent off too, CYMS are just too good a side to play against with 12 players, especially when you're behind. They're a quality side, big pack, and hats off to them for bouncing back from last week."
Blayney on the other hand, host the undefeated Mudgee Dragons, the Jack Littlejohn-coached side edged out Oberon 24-18 on Friday afternoon.
- ORANGE CYMS 44 (Travis Adelerhof 2, Ben McAlpine 2, Jarred Tyack, Lachie Munro, Josh Burke, Steve Morris tries; McAlpine 6 goals) def BLAYNEY BEARS 16 (Lhiam Burrell, Ryley Oborn, Robert Lane tries; Steve Lane 2 goals)