IF Andrew Cosgrove isn’t widely recognised as one of the more damaging forwards throughout the Blowes Clothing Cup, he certainly is at Endeavour Oval.

Well, his head is anyway.

“There’s a joke at training at the moment,” Emus co-coach Graydon Staniforth begins.

“Everyone thinks Cosi should be wearing headgear, and that’s for everyone else’s protection.”

A workhorse on the side of Emus’ scrum for the last two seasons, the 26-year-old has unfortunately been involved in head clashes with firstly then-coach Andrew Logan - fracturing his cheekbone - in 2014 and then again three weeks ago when Emus clashed with the Bulldogs in Bathurst.

On that occasion, powerful No.8 Rob Thorburn came off second best, and has since had surgery on the multiple fractures his cheekbone copped colliding with Cosgrove’s melon.

“They’re all up me,” Cosgrove laughed.

“I took out our best player this year. What am I supposed to do? They’re saying I’ve got to play for two people now.”

Originally from Warren and clearly boasting a head harder than limpets teeth, Cosgrove has left both collisions scot-free.

“My old man reckons he fed me lots of milk when I was a kid,” he smiled.

“I don’t know. The old milk and cow.”

VIDEO: Michelle Cook and Nick McGrath preview Saturday's matches:

Emus face Parkes at Endeavour Oval tomorrow in a return leg of the Greens’ 18-17 loss to the Boars during the first round.

While Emus have soared to second on the ladder since, Cosgrove said the hosts wary of a Boars side clearly capable of rising to the occasion come kick-off at 3.15pm.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries at the start of the year but I reckon it’s all coming together now at the right end of the season,” he said.

“We were missing a few players that game (against Parkes) and I’m sure the way we’ve been playing we’ll do much better.”

Cosgrove has slated games against the power-packed Cowra forwards and the ladder-leading Orange City as tough fixtures ahead, but added since the turn of the season Emus have begun to play the kind of rugby most thought the greens capable of when branded with the premiership favourites tag during pre-season.

“I think Bathurst, the start of the second half of the season, we really kicked it into gear there,” he said.

 “We had great defence which was coming good now. If we keep this up, hopefully don’t have any injuries, then we’ll be fine.”

ORANGE EMUS: 1 Nas Havealeta, 2 Keith Howarth, 3 Steve Fergus, 4 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 5 Sam McLean, 6 Scott McLean, 7 Andrew Cosgrove, 8 Alo Finau, 9 TJ Cunynghame, 10 Adam Perri, 11 Tom Green, 12 Simon Badgery, 13 Nigel Staniforth, 14 Carter Hirini, 15 Isaac White.