After spending one trophy-filled season with Dubbo CYMS Haley Butcherine was prepared to say it.
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"I always thought Group 10 was stronger until I joined this group," the former Orange Hawks player said on Sunday.
"CYMS is awesome."
Butcherine was speaking after playing a key role in the Fishies' Premiers Challenge win over Bathurst St Pat's.
The Western Rams region's two league tag premiers did battle at Kennard Park and after an evenly-matched first half a Madi Crowe-inspired CYMS began to assert its authority and ultimately ran out 24-10 winners.
Crowe scored a double in a player of the match showing while Butcherine scored a highlight-reel worthy second half try when nabbing a Maddi Chapman kick one-handed and juggling it on the way to the line.
The try and victory capped off a memorable first year in green and white for the centre as CYMS finished the 2019 season undefeated.
"It's awesome. Group 10 was my group before so coming here and taking it out in my first year is amazing," she said.
"I'm obviously a newcomer and we've had a few newcomers in the team but it's an awesome club and so welcoming and I couldn't have asked for anything else. I love my fish family."
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The fact St Pat's hadn't lost a match since 2017 coming into the fixture made the celebrations all the sweeter for CYMS.
Saints coach Mick Armstrong paid tribute to the Dubbo side following the game but confessed his team didn't show what is was capable of just one week after a hard-fought 10-4 Group 10 grand final win over Orange Hawks.
"We've had a big week and we've celebrated so it was hard to get up," Armstrong said.
"I told the girls a couple of times we were going to be flat but we had to play through it and unfortunately we didn't.
"It is disappointing and I said to the girls it would have been nice to win but CYMS was far too good on the day. They played really well."
CYMS' desperation in defence was one of the major reasons behind their success at Wellington, with Cassie Toomey and Jinnara Tyson in particular getting through a mountain of work.
The Fishies, missing the direction provided by captain Nic Grose, began slowly but seemed to have survived unscathed after a raft of Saints' attacking raids in the first 10 minutes.
But as CYMS worked their way out of trouble Bronte Emanuel snagged an intercept and raced 40m under little pressure to score the day's first try.
The Group 11 champions began to find their way and approaching half-time got their reward when Kimberlee Gordon went herself from close range and evaded the defence to get across.
The overnight rain made slick attacking play tricky on the Kennard Park surface tricky but CYMS found their groove in the second half while the errors started to build up for St Pat's.
Crowe sliced through seven minutes into the second stanza to get the Fishies back in front and the Australian touch football representative's second was even better, as she moved across field before the most subtle swivel of the hips allowed her to blitz through a gap and put her side firmly in control.
Darcie Morrison got one back for the Saints when a lovely Mish Somers shorts ball put her into space but Butcherine's try seven minutes from time sealed CYMS' win.
"The standard of football today was how we played the whole season so we deserved to take it all out, undefeated," Butcherine said, before speaking about her try.
"That was cool. I didn't expect that to end up in my arms but I was off an away. I put it down and that was great."
Butcherine also heaped praise on Crowe after her stunning first season in Group 11 was capped off with the player of the match medal on Sunday.
"She is amazing. To have her join the team has been great and she's got so much experience," Butcherine said.
"She's a champion girl too, on and off the field. She's supportive and taught us a few things and that experience has been great."
- DUBBO CYMS 24 (Madi Crowe 2, Kimberlee Gordon, Haley Butcherine tries; Zenetra Astill 4 goals) defeated BATHURST ST PAT'S 10 (Bronte Emanuel, Darcie Morrison tries; Mish Somers goal)