The Forbes Magpies under 18s be coming up against an undefeated Orange Hawks side this weekend but they know they have the full support of their community.
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The Magpies will travel over to Bathurst on Sunday to take on the Hawks in the Tom Nelson Under 18s finals.
However, the Forbes side is playing for more than just themselves.
![Forbes' Mick Coady is one of the club's star under 18s players. Picture by Renee Powell Forbes' Mick Coady is one of the club's star under 18s players. Picture by Renee Powell](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/118079462/26dd1ca4-33cb-428e-8493-542fdc5c603e.jpg/r158_21_927_379_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The club and community as a whole were rocked earlier this season after hearing the news of Dane Richards' sudden passing.
As coach Brad McMillan well knows, under 18s footy is the best time of your life while playing with some of your best mates and he is confident the group are as close as any other side in the Central West.
"It has been a very tough year for the boys, the club and the community but they have rallied together and stuck together," he said.
"Under 18s for me as well is the best time in my career, you only get one crack at it really."
Richards was a close friend to many of Forbes players and the town's biggest school honoured him earlier in the week.
The mighty Red Bend Catholic College opens rugby league side recently returned from Sydney after winning the NSW CCC Cup, defeating Parramatta Marist 8-0.
Forbes gun Mick Coady was named player of the carnival while George Matthews was awarded the Dane Richards players player award.
With a fair share of the Forbes side playing in the school competition, McMillan is hoping they can continue their form.
"A fair few of them are coming off a school side that played down at Sydney," he said.
"They won a comp down there during the week so they are playing some good footy at the moment, hopefully, they can take it into the weekend."
While it hasn't been the season Forbes' first grade side was hoping for, a lot of the under 18s got a taste of the top grade.
A former first grader himself, McMillan knows adapting to the faster play against men can help the juniors return to their own division.
"We've had three or four of the boys who have tasted first grade," he said.
"A few of them got a fair taste and didn't look out of place, hopefully, they can bring it back into the 18s."
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McMillan confessed the side hasn't had the ideal preparation for Sunday's match, struggling for consistent game time over the past month.
"We haven't really had too much footy really leading into the semi-finals either," he said.
"We had that week off when were supposed Hawks and then we played Nyngan and Macquarie which wasn't much of a game.
"Then we had two weeks off before coming up against Dubbo CYMS so it's been hard to get a bit of a roll on."
Forbes and Hawks were actually supposed to meet earlier in the season but the game was decided as a draw.
McMillan might not know too much about the Orange side but is confident they will be hard to beat.
"I haven't heard a great deal about them but I know there are some boys in their side that have played (Western) Rams with a few of our boys," he said.
"They look like a quality side so we are going to have to be on our game to ensure that we get the biscuits.
"We've sort of struggled to put together 60-minute performances this year, we are sort of hoping that coming into the finals it doesn't become an issue."
Sunday's match will begin at 1pm.
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