Dubbo Kangaroos’ reserve grade side is formidable and playing them in the 2016 Blowes Clothing Cup has been a daunting task for every team, no matter where or when – just look at their numbers.
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Roos won 15 and lost just one of their 17 games, drawing the other, and scored 825 points along the way and conceding just 113.
That’s a ridiculous points difference of 712. They scored 191 points more than the next best attacking side (Orange Emus) and let in 54 less than the next best defensive side (Bathurst Bulldogs).
Taking them down in Saturday’s major semi-final is the task Emus have at Endeavour Oval. The first spot in the 2016 grand final is on the line too.
“Roos’ record’s incredible, but ours is pretty darn good too,” Emus coach Steve Levett said.
“We came within inches, minutes, of beating them on their own turf earlier this year.
“That’s more than most other sides can say and it’s at home, which gives us confidence.”
Levett said the fact the game is at Endeavour not only gives Emus confidence, it could be telling.
“That was our main motivation in last weekend’s win over Bathurst (Bulldogs), the fact we’d get a major semi-final on our home turf,” Levett expained.
“As I said, Dubbo pipped us when we played them in Dubbo and we’ve been dying for another crack at them ever since.
Roos' record’s incredible, but ours is pretty darn good too.
- Emus coach Steve Levett.
“Because we only played them once this year we didn’t get the chance to play them in Orange during the round games, so we knew it’d only come during the finals. Our first grade side really helped us out there.
“The main reason we wanted to get them at home is because we think, we know, we can beat them. Yes, it’ll take a very good performance because they’re a great side, but it’s something we definitely think we’re capable of.
“Being at home just gives us that extra bit of spark, I think.”
A win would catapult Emus into their third straight second grade grand final – they won in 2014 and went down last year – which, a month or so ago looked like an impossible outcome.
“We were sitting fifth not long ago and we talked about how hard we’d have to work to get to this point,” Levett said.
“I think a few teams probably even wrote us off at that point, and I think the fact we were dangerously close to missing the finals completely is spurring us on and forcing us to not take the opportunity for granted.
“We want to be there on grand final day and that means winning on Saturday, that’s the only focus we have.”
Levett said, considering Dubbo is strong across the entire paddock, the greens will need big performances from everyone.
“We can’t afford anyone having an off day, but we’ve got a lot of guys in form at the moment,” he said.
“Harry Hamilton was unbelievable last weekend, our front-row has been superb all year as have the guys we’ve got in the remainder of the pack.
“We’ve got some x-factor in the back-line and I’d expect another big performance from our centre pairing of Matt Campbell and Simon Thompson too.”
Kick-off is at 1.30pm.
ORANGE EMUS: 1 Matt Findlay, 2 Keith Howarth, 3 Steve Fergus, 4 Damien Harton, 5 Harry Hamilton, 6 Alo Finau, 7 Jayden Norris, 8 Scott McLean, 9 James Simmons, 10 Glen Maxwell, 11 Bill Thompson, 12 Matt Campbell, 13 Simon Thompson, 14 Derek Thompson, 15 Marty Bryan; Interchange: 16 Jack Marchinton, 17 Brent Braithwaite, 18 Steve Murphy, 19 Jack Hart, 20 Luke Ginns, 21 Seb Backhouse, 22 Joel Goff, 23 Adam Freeman
