Mark Kennedy’s men fought back from a 17-point half-time deficit to beat the Orange Tigers – their closest rivals on the ladder – 18-18-126 to 13-9-87.

The win not only means the Tigers will head into the finals series without a win over the Bushrangers, but that Bathurst retained the Burns-Long Trophy.

“They definitely wanted to have a good, hard crack at us and they showed they wanted to compete. We just have to be switched on for the full four quarters, at the end of the day it was a good win and we’ll take it,” Kennedy said.

“It showed a bit of resolve from us, we don’t panic when we are behind, and I think we have got in their heads a little bit now too. They got a lead on us, but we showed them that that can’t relax at all against us.

“The most pleasing thing was that we didn’t panic – the scoreboard, as long as it is our way at the end of the day it is a good thing, we try not to focus on that at all during the game.”

Bathurst headed into the contest without six of their regular starters including 2012 league best and fairest Nathan Belbin, premiership winning captain Matt Archer and hard man Shaun Noyen.

The Tigers took advantage as they booted four goals four to Bathurst’s three goals four in the first quarter to open up a six-point lead. The margin further increased as the Bushrangers were restricted to just two majors in the second stanza and at the long break, the Tigers had a sniff of an upset as they led 8-7-55 to 5-8-38. However, Kennedy decided to make some adjustments to his line-up to try and swing momentum back in the Bushrangers’ favour.

Dennis Pedemont was pushed onto the ball and Derryn Clayton shuffled into the centre which released Paul Long to play a more attacking role. Dan Crofts and Keegan Browne lined up in the half back line to help shore things up in defence.

Those changes, plus Tom Waters getting on top in the ruck, saw the Bushrangers wrestle back the lead in the third term as they booted six goals six. At the final change the Tigers still hoped to inflict the Bushrangers first loss of season 2013 – trailing by just six points – but the reigning premiers kept their composure.

They not only added seven majors for the term, but restricted the Tigers to a pair of goals and a behind.

“We did have to work very hard in that first half, but in the second we clicked a little bit and got back in behind the ball and changed a few things around and it worked well for us,” Kennedy said.

The Bathurst coach praised Pedemont for his best on ground effort, but was just as pleased with the effort of his ruckman.

“Dennis got the medal ... he just killed it today, he kicked a few long goals to get the ascendancy going our way again,” Kennedy said. “Tom Waters deserves a mention as well, he rucked all day. He ran out the game and that’s a big effort from a big ruckman.”

BATHURST BUSHRANGERS 18-18-126 (Paul Long 4, Leigh Kingwell 3, Dennis Pedemont 2, Justin Ronnefeldt 2, Derryn Clayton 2, Sebastian Matheson 2, Casey White 2, Keegan Browne) defeated ORANGE TIGERS 13-9-87 (Tim Barry 4, Josh Bubnich 3, Nathan Pearce 2, Travis Bertram 2, Tom Burge, Jaydan Phillips)