BLAYNEY has qualified for the club’s fifth Central West Rugby Union second division grand final in five seasons following a brilliant 39-18 thumping of their Rams rivals Condobolin last Saturday.
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Avenging a thrilling qualifying semi-final loss against the Rams in week one of this year’s GrainCorp Cup southern zone semi-finals, Blayney booked its place in Saturday’s grand final against the Magpies in Molong courtesy of the 21-point preliminary final win in Condobolin.
Blayney coach Bryce Toohey believes making five consecutive deciders is a great achievement by the club.
“It is, definitely. We’ve had a core group of players over the last five years who’ve been there for each of them,” Toohey said.
Last year Blayney, the 2013 minor premiers, ended up losing the grand final against Molong.
Enjoying a week off leading into that grand final, Toohey admits his side was a victim of very little momentum throughout the finals series.
Now, ahead of his side’s re-match with Molong, Toohey said it’s his team that’s full of running.
“Molong are in a similar situation to what we were last year,” he added, the Magpies the winners of this year’s minor title.
“We’d won the minor premiership, played one semi-final before having the grand final then ended up being beaten.
“I think it’s better to have played those extra games, I think we’ve got the momentum.”
He said the key to Blayney claiming the spoils and reversing last year’s result was an up-tempo game.
“We played fast paced rugby throughout the season and then went away from that in the first semi-final against Condo,” Toohey admitted.
“But we got back to that last week and the boys are really enjoying their rugby at the moment.”
He was predicting an eventful decider at Molong’s Dr Ross Memorial Oval.
“There will be a lot of drama no doubt,” he laughed.
“But I’m confident if the boys can lift, then we’ll be the ones holding up the trophy at the end of the day.”
The GrainCorp Cup southern zone grand final will kick-off at 3.15pm on Saturday.
BLAYNEY: 1 Evan Stanbridge, 2 Andrew Delaney, 3 Craig Gosewich, 4 Jack Ryan, 5 James Stanbridge, 6 Brock Syphers, 7 Tim Jamieson, 8 Sam Nixon (c), 9 Sean Toohey, 10 Cam Hobby, 11 John Wills, 12 Ben Williams, 13 Seb Hobby, 14 Brendon Newstead, 15 Matt Iffland; 16 Adam Lowe, 17 Anthony Salmon, 18 Glen Bunworth, 19 Tino Saera.