The Mudgee Dragons sit on the top of the Group 10 ladder after seven rounds of the 2019 season but they're not the team to beat, insists skipper Jack Littlejohn.
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Not yet, anyway.
The Dragons are about to tackle a massive month of footy - Mudgee welcomes Orange CYMS on Sunday and then faces a hugely improved Workies at Lithgow, the Magpies in Cowra and then Josh Starling's Oberon Tigers back at Glen Willow in successive weeks.
Coupled with two trips to Orange in the second half of the season and Littlejohn knows the road ahead is a tough one for the Dragons.
With five wins and a loss from their six games this season, there can be little doubt Littlejohn's first-placed Dragons are well placed to handle the upcoming period.
But with premiers Bathurst Panthers and Orange Hawks boasting the same win-loss records, just with slightly inferior differentials, the first-year Mudgee mentor knows full well his side can't afford to take its foot off the pedal.
We've got to get better ... and completing our sets more will help.
- Mudgee skipper Jack Littlejohn.
There's no complacency, so there's also no talk of Mudgee setting the pace for every other side in 2019 either.
"I don't think that, no," Littlejohn said when asked if Mudgee was the team to beat this winter.
"Panthers beat us two weeks ago so I'd have them as the benchmark. They're strong across the park and they're tough to beat.
"Obviously we have CYMS this week and they're strong. That'll be interesting to see how we go."
If they do go well then it'll be on the back of the club's defence.
Last week the Dragons conceded just six points against St Pat's in Bathurst, and even then Chris Kirby's try in the corner looked touch-and-go.
Mudgee leads the premier league competition in terms of its defence, with just 89 points - a touch under 15 points per game - conceded.
So while Littlejohn says his side's attack is still a work in progress - an ominous enough warning considering the red and whites also lead that tally - the Dragons' will lean on their miserly defence when negotiating the back half of the regular season.
"We've got to get better ... and completing our sets more will help," he added.
"If we can get our completion rates up and defend like we do we'll be hard to beat. We just need to hold the football more."
The former Manly and Wests Tigers pivot lauded the work of Tom Lawson at the back, the improving Corin Smith on the Dragons' right edge and 2016 Dave Scott medalist Hamish Bryant, who's added an uncompromising edge to the Mudgee pack in 2019.
Mudgee tackles CYMS in five grades on Sunday, with under 18s league tag at 9.30am. Premier league is scheduled to kick-off at 2.15pm.
Nick McGrath
Editor, Central Western Daily
Editor, Central Western Daily
