It's been almost 10 years since Dubbo Rhinos won in Mudgee but coach Doug Sandry is confident Saturday's major semi-final could end his club's struggles against the Wombats.
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Mudgee will host the Rhinos in the major semi-final of the New Holland Cup on Saturday at Glen Willow Oval, with the winning side to earn the right to host the grand final of the competition on August 27.
After battling through the season, the Rhinos managed to finish second and have earned two shots at the finals with the loser of the weekend's match to host the preliminary final the following week.
Coming off a strong win over Narromine, Sandry knows his side will be up for their biggest challenge of the season so far.
"For us, we are looking at it as though it is a free hit in cricket," he said.
"We finished second so we get two bites of the cherry which is great, if we aren't lucky enough to get over the line this weekend then we will get another opportunity next weekend.
"We are pretty confident that we can get the job done on Saturday, we've done a lot of work in the last couple of weeks to sure up a few areas we needed to fix up."
On the other hand, Mudgee had the final round of the regular season off due to the bye and Sandry knows they will be a well-rested outfit.
"We are confident that what we've done will be enough but Mudgee will be fresh," he said.
"They had the bye last weekend, so they've had time to rest and recover.
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"We took a few guys off early last week at the end, Narromine managed to get a few tries because we had guys all over the place but we'll be ready."
Flyhalf Dale Smith is seemingly enjoying his time in the role after moving from fullback in the last two weeks by scoring four tries against Narromine and Sandry admitted he will keep sticking with the same backline structure.
"He has given us a little more zip at flyhalf, he's so quick off the mark Dale and teams find it hard to match his speed," he said.
"It's worked pretty well, not too much is going to change and we will focus on the areas we need to.
"Hopefully we will be able to give him enough space which will free up our backline, I think over the last few weeks all our backs have been outstanding off the back of Dale.
"Nash (Forgione) is so outstanding at the back, he just understands the game."
NSW Country Colts representative Lachie O'Malley will return to the Rhinos' side this weekend and Sandry is confident the young flanker could be in for a big match.
"He's had a week off which is great and will come back fresh," he said.
"We rested our other flanker Joe Raikabula, he has had a bit of a niggle.
"We've been really lucky, we've had Jordan Davis come up the last few weeks and he has been outstanding for us.
"But with both the boys back this week we should be at full strength."
Kick off is at 3:15pm.
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