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That’s the message Orange Tigers player-coach Dale Hunter has drilled into his side this week, because he knows they’ll have to to achieve their goal of earning hosting rights for this year’s Central West AFL grand finals.
Hunter’s the first to admit his Tigers haven’t reached their usual lofty standards in recent weeks, suffering two defeats from their final three regular-season games, but the foundation is in place for them to do just that in Saturday’s major semi-final against the Bathurst Bushrangers Rebels.
“We’ve put it to the group that we need to improve on those last few games and we’ll also be fielding the strongest side we have all season, which helps,” Hunter said, adding the side has trained well in the lead-up too.
“But I’ve played enough finals myself to know the best side on paper doesn’t always win, that’s why it’s important for us to get back to where we need to be.
“I’m confident the side we’re naming can do that, we just need to get back to playing our football.”
That Tigers’ brand of football was more than good enough to push the side to the minor premiership and, on top of that, two wins from three starts against the Rebels.
“In terms of the performances we’ve put on the paddock all season we’re confident, but you always have to step up in these games,” Hunter said, before shutting down any suggestion wet conditions might stifle his side.
“We always expect the worst when it comes to weather, you have to in Orange. We’ve played in these conditions the last few weeks and we train out at Waratahs every week too, so we know the ground.
“We know our strengths in those conditions too so we’ll just wait and see what it’s like, then go from there.”
The obvious Tigers players one thinks of in terms of leading the way in big games are the likes of Tim Barry, the Rothnies, Jaxon Mumme, Chris Pethybridge and Hunter himself.
But the Tigers’ coach said the, for lack of a better term, support crew can’t be underestimated, having flown under the radar for much of the year.
“It’ll help having our big ruckman Tom Gibbons back,” Hunter said.
“The games he’s missed are the ones we’ve struggled in a bit through the middle, someone like Andrew Henry has never got the recognition he probably deserves either.
“Mitch McKenna, Lucas Kelly and the midfield brigade too, Mitchy especially loves these type of conditions.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in the entire side, the back six is very strong and we’ll just look to get the ball to guys like Logan (Crimp) and Sandun (Welisara) out wide as early as we can, they’ll feed the forward line.”
First bounce in Saturday’s major semi-final at Waratahs is at 2.30pm, following the women’s clash between the Bathurst Lady Bushrangers and the Dubbo Demons.
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