Illness and injury made the first few rounds of the season difficult for the Bathurst club but the students broke through in style last weekend when defeating defending premiers Parkes with a try in the finals moments of the match.

It was particularly sweet for Melville, who didn't expect to be named captain by coach Dave Conyers this year.

"I wasn't expecting it but it's happened, I'm still learning the ropes," he said.

"It's a big club, big history. Like going through that 50 years celebration stuff in 2020-21 and seeing what the club means to the old boys, and how I feel about playing for the club, yeah it's a massive honour."

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The skipper is hoping the confidence and morale boost that came from that performance against Parkes will help them at home against the Gorillas on Saturday.

"They'll be a good game, they're tough opposition," he said.

"They've got a really strong forward pack, their back row is really good so we'll have to try and deal with them, then they've got a winger who's really, really rapid, so we'll have to contend with him.

"They're always up for a good hard game of footy."

Narromine is yet to score a win this season but there were promising signs during last weekend's narrow loss to the Dubbo Rhinos.

The Gorillas scored three-tries-to-two but suffered a 23-21 loss on their home turf.

Elsewhere in the New Holland Cup this weekend, the Mudgee Wombats hosts Parkes and the Dubbo Rhinos have the bye.

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