Since captain-coach Mick Sullivan took over the green and golds have claimed the minor title in 2010, 2015 and now this season as well although this year’s win was extra special for the club.

It marked the first time in CYMS’ 71-year history the club has claimed the minor premierships in all three men’s senior divisions – premier league, first division and under-18s.

Combined with Mudgee’s comfortable win over Cowra CYMS’ 34-14 win also ended the Bears’ campaign, they’re now too far adrift of the Dragons and cannot sneak into the top five with one game remaining in the regular season.

“[Fininshing in the] top two is more of a goal (than the minor title) but it is a good achievement for us,” Sullivan said.

“It takes the pressure off us, we don’t have to sew up the minor premiership next weekend on the road. It’s nice to have it done and be able to freshen up after next weekend’s game, have a week off and then hopefully win to go straight [into the grand final].”

Although Sullivan was pleased with the victory on Sunday it came from an uncharacteristically inconsistent performance from his side.

For 40 minutes anyway.

For the opening 40 minutes CYMS battled a serious case of the dropsies and while the Bears were valiant, they were all but kept in the game by the hosts’ handling errors.  

“I think we came out a little bit excited, last time we played in that sort of good weather we put a big score on against (Orange) Hawks, we might’ve thought it was going to happen again before the game,” Sullivan said.

“That wasn’t the case, we were scrappy and they were desperate.”

CYMS still led 12-10 at half-time though on the back of converted tries to Todd Murphy and the returning Tim Mortimer, who came back from a broken hand which had sidelined him for three weeks prior to Sunday.

Carter Hirini and Luke Petrie scored for Blayney, both on the back of CYMS’ knock-ons.

After both sides blew their first couple of attacking chances by spilling the pill, CYMS finally held the ball for a full set and Murphy opened the scoring at the end of it in the 18^th minute.

After a Jerome Harrison in-and-away put him on the outside of his opposition centre he found Murphy, who beat two would-be Bears tacklers to score in the left corner of Wade Park’s northern end.

McAlpine nailed the conversion, but the Bears hit back shortly afterward through Carter Hirini, who started on the wing but moved to fullback after an injury forced regular custodian Josh Rainbow to lock.

Ten minutes later Mortimer wiggled his way over from close range, twisting and turning out of two tackles to get there.

With McAlpine’s conversion and Blayney halfback Luke Petrie’s converted try in the 37^th minute, CYMS held a narrow two-point lead at half-time.

Then they turned it on – on the back of a rev-up at the break – outscoring Blayney 22-4 in the second half to run away with the win.

CYMS’ intensity lifted and their execution returned, after that it only took five minutes for Sam Hill to cross after he latched onto a Sullivan chip kick.

Deryne McKenzie – who was magnificent in the beaten side – steamrolled his way over shortly afterward to keep his side in the contest at 18-14, but the try proved an anomaly in a second half which was all CYMS’.

McAlpine scored twice in 10 minutes, linking with Sullivan in second-man plays both times, before Jerome Harrison scored on the back of a Cam Jones line break.

Sullivan found Jones with a beautiful short ball on CYMS’ 30 metre line and the tireless prop went through Blayney’s line untouched to find plenty of space, showing the pace – of lack thereof – which has earned him the nickname ‘Trundler’ from the CYMS’ faithful.

He went 50 metres, at one stage looking likely to go all the way, before being brought down a little over 15 from the Bears’ line and Harrison reaped the rewards of the momentum the bust created.

McAlpine kicked his fifth goal of the afternoon to push the score out to 34-14, where it remained.

“We tightened up in the second half, we still weren’t perfect but it goes to show how vital it is to hold on to the ball,” Sullivan said.

“When we had a bit of shape we were dangerous, just simple shape. That’s a big part of our game, going forward and our second phase play when we do get on a roll.

“We were probably guilty of trying to be a little bit too fancy with the ball today, we maybe overplayed our hand a little bit.

“That’s something we’ll need to fix up before we go down to play (Bathurst) St Pat’s next week. There was a few one-on-one errors as well.”

ORANGE CYMS 34 (Ben McAlpine 2, Jerome Harrison, Tim Mortimer, Sam Hill, Todd Murphy tries; McAlpine 5 goals) def BLAYNEY BEARS 14 (Deryne McKenzie, Luke Petrie, Carter Hirini tries; Lachie Hobby goal)