A FRANK discussion following last weekend’s loss to Orange Emus has given Orange City coach Steve Hamson plenty of confidence going into Sunday’s Blowes Clothing Cup elimination semi-final against the Bathurst Bulldogs.
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“We know where we went wrong, we spoke about the errors we made against Emus as a group and I’m sure we won’t make those mistakes again this weekend,” he fired.
In Hamson’s eyes the biggest errors his side made were taking the wrong options in crucial times and not executing when they had attacking chances, both of which put the Lions under more pressure than they could handle against the minor premiers.
Both those aspects of the Lions’ game will be pivotal in Sunday’s do-or-die finals clash too, that you can be sure of.
“As I said after that Emus game, if we’d taken our chances it could’ve been a very different result but we didn’t so we got what we got,” Hamson said.
“We’ve addressed that and I know the boys are all keen to get out there, so we’ll see what happens on Sunday.”
Along with keeping their premiership hopes alive the Lions will be looking to extend a six-year winning streak at Bulldogs’ home ground which stretches all the way back to the last time Orange City lost there in September 2010.
Ray Lange kicked a penalty goal on full-time to win that game, the preliminary final, 14-12.
For that reason alone Hamson said last Saturday that his side doesn’t have “anything to be afraid of” in playing at Ashwood Park.
They will be trying to extend that winning streak without Joe Lasagavibau and Tatafu Na’aniumotu, both crucial cogs in the Lions’ make-up, though.
“At this stage, yeah, we’ll be without both of them. We’re actually waiting for a couple of other guys to recover from some niggles too,” Hamson said.
“So we’ll be preparing to play this weekend as though those two won’t be with us.”
The Lions and Bulldogs have only met once so far in 2016, a game the latter side prevailed in, winning 18-7 on a slippery surface and in torrential rain at Pride Park.
The Bathurst side isn’t dissimilar to the last couple of seasons in terms of personnel and structures and Hamson said that game gave the Lions another insight into the Bulldogs’ approach.
“That day, they ran their big boys through our inside backs and made plenty of inroads there, we also weren't tackling or defending as well as we should’ve been at that stage of the season,” Hamson explained.
We know where we went wrong (against Emus) ... I’m sure we won’t make those mistakes again.
- Orange City mentor Steve Hamson
‘We’ve been defending much, much better lately than we were at that stage of the season so hopefully this weekend we can stifle a bit of the momentum they get through their big boys.
“We’ll also be looking for parity at the set piece so we can have a chance to look out wide.
“We’ll back ourselves if they look to take the game out wide.”
Kick off is at 3.15pm.