DUBBO Kangaroos coach Paul Hennock admits revenge is firmly in his players' minds as the Blowes Clothing Cup leaders prepare for Saturday's match against the Forbes Platypi.
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Forbes inflicted Dubbo with the first of their two losses this season back in May and with the Roos needing to win to maintain their spot at the top of the ladder, everyone is focused on returning from Grinsted Oval with the points.
"It's definitely in their mind and we've got our three Country guys back so they're all keen to turn the tables on Forbes," he said.
"We need to keep winning, we've got a couple of games coming up which will be difficult but you can't take any game lightly now."
Forbes defeated the Roos 31-5 at No. 1 Oval in round seven but the home side were without Country Cockatoo players Peter Nau, Scott Burgess and Filisione Pauta that day.
Burgess and Pauta will line up tomorrow but there is still some concern over skipper Nau, who missed last week's win over CSU after injuring his ankle a week earlier.
James Mata is also battling a thumb injury but there is more positive news regarding Shaun McHugh and Anthony Golding, who will return from injury in second grade this week. Hennock is also pleased to have halfback Wade Richardson starting the match after coming off the bench last week.
"Pete is 50-50 but he wants to play and his experience could be handy in a game like this," he said.
"Wade went on last week with about 25 to go, he just steadies things a bit, he's a solid player and hopefully he'll be better for the run last week."
Dubbo are coming off a 33-5 win over CSU last week while Forbes got past Parkes 21-15.
Orange Emus, who are sitting level with Dubbo at the top, travel to take on the Mudgee Wombats this weekend and with the Emus are a chance of recording a bonus point win, Hennock wants his side to play intelligent rugby in their quest for the minor premiership.
"We just need smart football, we wore ourselves out a bit in the first half last week from running side to side, we need straighten up the attack a bit," he said.
"Our kicking game has improved, the loss to Forbes was like our loss to Emus and we just couldn't get out of our own 22.
"Our work at the breakdown has been really good, our scrum is improving and our lineout has been good so it's just about improving our kicking game and playing smart."
The first grade match at Grinsted Oval kicks off at 3.15pm.
o DUBBO KANGAROOS: 1 Max Ma'a Nelson, 2 Peter Nau, 3 Tim Cullenward, 4 John Korff, 5 James Elliott, 6 Ned Williams, 7 Brad Pugh, 8 Simon Hegarty, 9 Wade Richardson, 10 Scott Burgess, 11 Tim Symonds, 12 Ted Bates, 13 Filisione Pauta, 14 Vince Williamson, 15 James Mata
