A YEAR off to concentrate on work and study has done the trick for Bathurst Panthers three-quarter Mitch Davis and finally he gets the chance to return to his home ground tomorrow afternoon against Lithgow Workies.

Davis has a long history with the men in black, going through their ranks with an all-conquering junior side and capping off his development by playing in back-to-back Group 10 under 18s premiership teams in 2010-11.

An often underrated and overlooked member of that side, Davis made a seamless transition into senior football. He made a name for himself as one of the most reliable players in what was a frequently mis-firing back line from 2012 to 2014.

“I sat out last year mainly due to work and study and trying to get on top of that, which I’ve pretty much done now,” Davis, who is in the final year of a physical education teaching degree at Charles Sturt University, said.

“I just missed footy, being around all the Panthers boys and a lot of them who I’d played a fair bit of footy with. I missed the game, I wanted to get back to it and so far it has been great.

“There have been some big changes with a lot of new faces from what I played with a couple of years ago, but they are great players to be on the field with and the culture of the team is fantastic.”

Davis’ value as a player isn’t as obvious as, for example, his long-time team-mate Blake Lawson at left-centre – a player who has made a habit out of creating tries from nothing and producing freak plays at the drop of a hat.

Instead Davis provides stability, gutsy defence, a decent pair of hands and a knack for being in exactly the right place at the right time regardless of what role he is asked to fill.

He spent time at fullback last Saturday in the thrilling 30-all draw with Orange CYMS, but for the majority of the season he has been camped on the right wing.

Already he is forming a good combination with new recruit Jye Barrow.

“It’s been great so far playing alongside Jye,” Davis said.

“He’s a good young player and has a lot of talent. I’m happy to play on the wing, I’ve learned to adjust to different positions in the past and I’ve played there plenty of times before.”

Panthers came out of their daunting five-game away stretch to start the season with an even ledger of two wins, two losses and a draw.

But in many ways, their three best performances earned them only a solitary competition point.

Their draw with CYMS was monumental in the context of their injury problems and the fact that they trailed 30-14, while they pushed Oberon to within two points in Oberon, and outscored Blayney five tries to four in torrential rain in Blayney.

“It was always going to be tough in that first part of the year, but obviously that means in the back end of the season there are going to be more chances to play at home and hopefully that allows us to really build some momentum,” Davis said.

“As a group we’ve tried to learn something from each week and improve on it the following round, we haven’t worried about too many specific negatives or focused on the results of a given match.

“It is unfortunate for Lithgow that they are having a few issues with player numbers, in the past they’ve virtually always been around the finals and one of the strongest clubs.

“But no matter how they are going, we still have to turn up this weekend and put on a good performance and make sure of the points.”

Panthers do battle with Workies from 1.45pm.

BATHURST PANTHERS: 1 Jeremy Gordon, 2 Bradyn Cassidy, 3 Blake Lawson, 4 Jye Barrow, 5 Mitch Davis, 6 Trent Hotham, 7 Claude Gordon, 8 Brent Seager,  9 Nick Loader, 10 Jed Betts, 11 Leigh Monaghan, 12 Todd Barrow, 13 Jake Betts, 14 Ben Gun, 15 Kyle Byrnes, 16 Jason Hewitt, 17 Jay McClintock.