THE Bathurst Panthers will be out to get the Group 10 premier league season off to a winning start when they play the Blayney Bears at Carrington Park tomorrow.
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The Panthers, who only had one win from their opening five games in 2014, will be looking for a more consistent start to 2015.
While their superb run at the back end of last season allowed them to sneak into the finals, more wins at the start of the year will ease the pressure later on.
New coach Todd Barrow has joined the Panthers ranks this year.
“All the boys are pretty keen. We had a good training run on Tuesday and they are ready to go,” he said.
“We said that night – and it’s something that I’ve said before – that we’ve been far too hot and cold before. We’d play great one week, then be off the next. That’s what I’ve been focused on most over the past few weeks and I know we can improve on that.
“In this competition it’s very even throughout, so we can’t afford to be giving games away early. This should be a tough one.
“The Panthers’ strength has always been in the forwards and I don’t expect things to change too much there.
“With the young halves combination we’ve got going [Matt Wool-mington/Joey Bugg] we should see some good consistency with the boys having played the whole pre-season together.
“They’ve done a great job to get to the level they are now from where they were at the start.”
The Panthers’ first encounter with Blayney last season was certainly a memorable one – for all the wrong reasons.
Panthers produced what was easily their most languid performance of the year to go down 28-20 in a shock result against the Bears, giving their opponents their first win upon their return to the competition.
There were no such mistakes the second time around when the Panthers cruised to a crushing 60-16 win at home, but the scoreline from that initial game won’t have been forgotten.
Blayney earned themselves the strugglers tag last season, but look set to improve in 2015 thanks to the addition of experienced prop Will Ingram and Wellington’s Lewis Stanley.
“From what I saw at the knockout they should be strong. I think they’re in for a good year,” Barrow said.
“In the past years they’ve always been in there and missed a couple of tight games. With the players they’ve brought in they’ll be better.
“Obviously they’ve lost Sam Coyte to Hawks, but they should still be strong. They’ve still got that big forward pack and it’s going to be a good battle there.”
Carrington Park will host its first Group 10 premier league match of the year tomorrow from 2.30pm.
BATHURST PANTHERS: 1 Bradyn Cassidy, 2 Chris Shephard, 3 Blake Lawson, 4 Jay McClintock, 5 Josh Small, 6 Matt Woolmington, 7 Joey Bugg, 8 Brent Seager, 9 Luke Carpenter, 10 Greg Behan, 11 Jed Betts, 12 Max Wolfson, 13 Jake Betts, 14 Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill, 15 Stan Latu, 16 Jase Hewitt, 17 Katon Crawford