Back in round two, when the Mudgee Dragons hosted Orange CYMS at Glen Willow Oval, the Red V went within a try of toppling the reigning Group 10 champions.
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The 20-14 loss showed the Dragons that not only could they compete with the best sides in the competition, but they could beat them.
Fast forward to round 11 and the Dragons will do battle with Mick Sullivan and CYMS again, only this time it’s under a new set of circumstances.
Not only will Orange be buoyed by a home-field advantage at Wade Park, they have ten matches under their belt as opposed to zero when they played their maiden game of 2018 against Mudgee.
“We can’t really take too much out of our first match in the season. They will be much better this time around with more games under their belt,” Mudgee skipper Jared Robinson said.
Sullivan’s description of CYMS’ round two performance was ‘clunky’ but Mudgee skipper Jared Robinson says his side can’t worry too much about its opposition.
“We need to concentrate on what we need to do right rather than worry too much about what they’re up to,” Robinson said.
“It’s going to take a huge team effort to get us over the line.
It sounds like a broken record but there’s one thing that’s still a key part of the game plan heading into the weekend. You guessed it… completion rates.
“They’re still high on the priority list,” he said.
“Until we can learn to hold onto the ball and force some repeat sets and build pressure, we aren’t going to trouble too many of the good sides.
“We are doing way too much defending which is leading to fatigue. We need to give ourselves a chance to be in the game of footy and at the moment we haven’t done that enough.”
Prior to the Blayney game that was eventually called off, Dragons’ coach Ben Gregory spoke about the planned positional changes, sending Corin Smith to fullback and Nathan Orr to the centres.
“Nathan (Orr) is an excellent centre. He’s good with the ball and is a really good defender.”
The match will kick-off at 2pm from Wade Park.