The thought of Dubbo CYMS being markedly better despite being three-from-three to start the new season is not one fans and players from opposing clubs would like the idea of, but that's the feeling inside the Fishies camp.

CYMS overcame an outstanding first half hour from Macquarie on Saturday to dominate the latest Group 11 Dubbo derby, running away with it in the second half to score a resounding 56-18 win.

After battling illness all week Cox scored a hat-trick and set up a number of other tries, one of those being a key first-half four-pointer when he produced a perfect kick downfield for his teammates to chase while heading for touch on halfway.

The Fishies, featuring another vastly changed lineup, then ran away with the contest in the second half.

"That's the dangerous thing. We've won three games and have played some terrible football," Cox said of how much better his side can be.

"If we played the second half today like we did the first the scoreboard would have looked a lot different."

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Macquarie promised to attack in the hope of beating CYMS for the first time since the 2012 grand final, and they delivered early on at Apex Oval.

Despite Cox scoring first the Raiders, minus injured captain-coach Wes Middleton, were right up for the contest and shifted the ball quickly while also rattling the Fishies in defence.

Tries to Aaron Daniel and Sam Thorpe, the former off a lovely short ball from Filisione Pauta, had them up 12-10 inside the final 10 minutes of the first half.

But the key moments in the game were still to come.

Despite having Alex Ronayne in the sin-bin after a string of penalties, CYMS scored twice in the final six minutes of the first half to take all the momentum into the break.

The first came when an Alex Bonham grubber was scooped up by Cox, who then in turn put Viliame Turuva over, and the second was when the CYMS centre booted the ball downfield for Brad Pickering to chase while heading for touch and surrounded by Raiders.

"I just saw someone in green so I kicked it and hoped for the best," Cox laughed.

"I knew I couldn't throw a pass, they were all inside me. Then I saw it was 'Picko' and I knew he would get there and score.

"It took us into half-time with a big buzz and we came out and got another try straight after half-time so that bit of enthusiasm before the break helped."

Raiders halfback Boche Satrick also admitted those six minutes before the break were the key part of the game.

It took the wind out of the Macquarie sails and after CYMS scored inside the first five minutes of the second half it was one-way traffic.

"That got them on the roll and we had to play catch-up footy from there," Satrick said.

"It was mistake after mistake from there."

Cox completed his hat-trick when helping CYMS reach the half century, while Pickering was another standout for the victors.

The Fishies fullback scored a double while he also booted eight of 10 conversions to finish with a personal points tally of 24.

Alex Bonham's intercept and runaway try was another highlight while the Fishies took great joy in seeing hulking veteran prop Ilisoni Vonomateiratu crash over from close range after finding himself at dummyhalf.

"It was good to finally get on the front foot and do a bit of attack," Cox said after scrappy, hard-fought wins over Wellington and Narromine to start the season.

"Last week all we did was defend and play catch-up football so it's good to show what we've got.

"They stuck it to us for awhile but once our discipline sorted we knew what we were doing and we went to basic football and that got us up the field easier."

CYMS travels to Forbes next weekend for a bumper grand final rematch while Macquare, now without a win after three rounds, plays host to Westside in another Dubbo derby.

The Raiders will start favourites in that and Satrick stated his side needed to start securing wins.

"The more we let the games slide away the more it will just create a domino effect and make it harder for us each week to get out of that hole," he said.