ORANGE City’s season came to a disappointing end at Pride Park on Saturday, outclassed by a strong Dubbo Kangaroos outfit in the Blowes Clothing Cup colts preliminary final, going down 30-nil.

The ill-disciplined Lions were their own worst enemy in the loss, conceding a continuous flow of penalties to gift Dubbo field position, possession and ultimately the second place in this weekend’s decider against Bathurst Bulldogs.

“Luck didn’t have anything to do with it, the better side won on the day. [Dubbo] certainly came to play and our boys were ill-disciplined,” Orange City coach Fletcher Niven said.

“It was dumb options, and that came from the guys not really doing the hard yards on the paddock. But they got to the last three and that’s credit to them.

“Last year we had a high turnover of players and I thought we might struggle. Winning five or six on the trot at the start of the season I thought was the worst thing that could’ve happened to us.

“The guys took their foot off the accelerator, stopped turning up and we never got back on a roll from there.”

It didn’t take Dubbo long to kick things off, with fullback Luke Ryan diving over in the opening exchanges. 

Despite Orange City’s best efforts, it was all Roos from there.

When the Lions got the ball, and that was rarely, they couldn’t hold on to it, and Dubbo ran in another two tries through winger Zac London to take a 20-nil lead into half-time.

Dubbo didn’t take their foot off the gas in the second half, and when Orange City fullback Weio Got was yellow carded for inciting a stoush, the Lions were all but out of the game.

Ryan Rooke crossed for Dubbo soon after and penalty goals to Ryan and Brad Collins sealed a comfortable victory for the Kangaroos.

“We had a couple of guys leave to go overseas after last week, and a few of the guys who have sat on the bench moved up into the starting spots as a result, but they got the job done which is great,” Dubbo coach Dean Matthews said.

“It is a good performance to go into a grand final on the back of, but it’ll have to be better next week for us to even go close to Bathurst.”

DUBBO KANGAROOS 30 (Zac London 2, Luke Ryan, Ryan Rooke tries; Ryan 2 conv, pen goal, Brad Collins pen goal) def ORANGE CITY 0