Bereyne bags a derby double as 'special forward pack' lifts CYMS to victory

That's how it played out for Orange CYMS on Sunday as they earned bragging rights over Orange Hawks in the first cross-town clash of the Peter McDonald Premiership season.

Coming off a lacklustre performance against Bathurst Panthers one week prior, it looked like the green and golds could suffer defeat in consecutive rounds after Hawks winger Harry Wald pulled off a near-length of the field try to open the scoring.

While it took a little while for CYMS to get going, once they did there was no stopping them.

A first half double to Ethan Bereyne accompanied by a Mitch Collins try saw the title contenders go into the break up 16-6.

"We find ourselves starting a bit slow. We need to find a way to get into the game a bit earlier. It's happened a couple of times where we've started a bit slow," Bereyne said after the game.

"But once our middles gets going, we're solid."

Although Hawks five-eighth Sandon Gibbs-O'Neill was able to cut the deficit to just one score in the second half, that's all they could muster.

CYMS workhorse Dylan Kelly managed to bag a try with ten minutes left in the contest to push the margin to two scores once more and 22-12 is how the game would end.

It was Kelly's first Orange derby and what an introduction he got.

The former Burleigh Bear limped off just eight minutes into the contest with a leg injury, but managed a return to the field.

Still in the first half, he suffered friendly fire from CYMS halfback Daniel Mortimer, who booted the ball right right into Kelly's face from close range.

Another knock five minutes into the first half had the game paused momentarily but once again, Kelly continued on.

"Just a normal game of footy," he said, brushing off any injury concerns.

"I've heard a lot about (the Orange derby games). I look forward to the next one and (Hawks) will be a tough team to handle when it comes to the business end of the season."

Kelly added when their big men up front are all firing, they're a "special forward pack" and hard to stop.

Bereyne agreed and hoped this victory would set the tone for the rest of the year.

"We've been trying to do that all year and to start finally doing it feels good," he said of their forwards.

"We've got some big boys and Hawks have some big boys as well. You just have to stay tough and grind it out."