ONLY one word can do justice to Orange Tigers’ 101-point Central West AFL major semi-final win over Bathurst Bushrangers on Saturday: bloodbath.
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The Tigers romped home at Orange’s Country Club Oval, kicking 22 majors to seven in the 22-18-150 to 7-7-49 victory, securing a home grand final in two weeks in the process.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s 100 points or three points, we’re only focused on winning,” Tigers coach Nathan Pearce said.
“They had a couple of guys out, but they don’t make up for 100 points. At the end of the day we went out with a real hunger. We haven’t had a home grand final since 2002. It’s a credit to the boys for that performance, to earn that grand final.”
From the moment Orange opened the scoring in the third minute of the first quarter the result was never in doubt as the Tigers shot out to a 29-point lead at the first break.
With the Tigers’ ruck rotation of Leigh Turner and Jarrad Lenegan dominating the centre square, Orange were afforded first use of the ball from almost every hit-out, starving the Bushrangers of possession.
As a result, the Tigers extended their lead to 49 points at the half-time break, before piling on seven goals to one in the third period to lead by 90 at the final break.
Orange continued their dominance in the fourth quarter thanks to the Bushrangers’ lackadaisical ball movement and regular turnovers, the Tigers kicking another four majors to seal the mammoth win.
“The ruckmen were fantastic,” Pearce said. “Our backline was where we really won the game, though – to only allow Bathurst to score seven goals is a massive effort.
“But there are still things to work on. Our delivery into the forward line wasn’t as fluent as it could be.”
Bathurst coach Brett Archer cut a dejected figure after the loss, and pulled no punches.
“Everything went wrong,” he said.
“Our passing game, our tackling game, nothing worked for us. We had a few out injured, but they don’t make up 101 points.
“We need to go back and put it all in place again next weekend, and hope we can get back here in two weeks.
“They played well and we played badly, it’s that simple.”
ORANGE TIGERS 22-18-150 (Dale Hunter 4, Timothy Barry 3, Michael Rothnie 3, Justin Fong 2, Matt Dippolito 2, Paul Jenkins 2, Murray Robotham 2, Josh Bubnich, Christopher Rothnie, Ben Monaghan, Jaydan Phillips) defeated Bathurst Bushrangers 7-7-49 (Thomas Markey 2, Keegan Browne 2, Matthew Archer, Bill Watterson, Jack Vogan)
