Dubbo College travelling to Orange for decisive Astley Cup tie

The school's netball team was the only side to taste victory two weeks ago when they completed one day of action against Bathurst High School.

But Dray knows that anything can change with a home crowd behind you.

"The home tie advantage is massive," Orange's netball coach said.

"You've got your supporters, you know your grounds, you have that advantage over the other visiting teams and sometimes people don't travel well especially if they're sick or injured."

Dubbo beat Bathurst when the two schools met last week. This means that if the college beats Orange across the two days, then they will take home the cup for the first time since 2011.

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The home-town contingent are determined not to let that happen.

"We're always hopeful and we want to maximise the amount of points we get and also minimise any points against," Dray said.

"We always talk about how every sport matters and every point matters as much as possible, so even if you're down you keep fighting, fighting, fighting because all the points you could win back really do matter overall at the end.

"So hopefully we'll get into a position where we're ahead in all of our sports which would be fantastic."

Dubbo College Astley Cup coordinator Craig May said something similar after his school's win over Bathurst last week.

A consistency across all sports was key as a valiant effort in hockey and 0-0 draw in the girls' soccer played part in the success.

"I truly believe Orange will finish over the top of Bathurst in their round so we have to do everything we can to get every point we can in all the sports," May said.

"It will be that every point, every minute, and every second will count because it's going to go down to the wire."

If Orange are able to beat Dubbo, then they stand an outside chance of winning the cup without the need for a tiebreaker. That will be determined in the first week of term three, when the second day of action that was snowed out against Bathurst will take place. If Orange can't pull off the comeback - Bathurst currently leads Orange 256-144 - then it will come down to the points totals from all three schools.

Tuesday's schedule of sports will start with hockey in Glenroi at 9.30am followed by rugby league at Wade Park at 11am. Following those will be netball (1pm) and basketball (2.20pm) at the PCYC.

Dray said it's key to get off to a good start.

"It's very, very important and it gives that little boost," she said.

"Our hockey team has traditionally been pretty strong but they haven't played this Dubbo team and we know they have a few gun players, so the girls will be looking to start us off really strong and our rugby league boys will do their very best as well.

"We have played Dubbo in a few sports so far but some are unknown, so I can't really pick out any sports in particular because every school and their team changes from year to year.

"Bathurst has always been traditionally strong in soccer, so I know both soccer teams will be looking to put in stronger performances this tie as well."

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