Emus blew the Boars off the paddock in the game’s opening 10 minutes and never allowed Parkes to wrestle momentum back, running in five tries to none in the 37-0 shellacking to earn another crack at the minor premiership-winning Dubbo Kangaroos in this weekend’s decider.

Although Emus and Dubbo have played out two thrillers so far this season – most recently in the major semi-final – the latter side has prevailed in both.

“I was as surprised as anyone with the scoreline on Saturday,” Emus coach Steve Levett enthused.

“We haven’t beaten Dubbo this year and to be fair, they’ve probably been the better side both times we played them, but we’ll go into the grand final with our tails up now.

“Obviously we’re ecstatic with the win, but our job’s not done by any means. We’ll knuckle down this week and try to figure out a way to get the best of Dubbo.”

Although he lauded his entire side’s preliminary final performance Levett reserved special praise for halfback Matt Clark, five-eighth Glen Maxwell and second-rower Harry Hamilton.

“Harry has been magnificent all season but he’s gone to another level since the finals have started, he was probably our best on the weekend but Clarky and Maxy were both very good too,” Levett said.

“It was the first time all season we’ve looked really fluent with ball in hand and all our direction came through those two.

“Everyone played well, but as I said we can’t get too wrapped up in that win. It becomes about repeating that performance in a few days time now.”

Emus will get the chance to try and do that in front of their home crowd too, the club’s first grade side ensured Endeavour Oval would host the deciders with a 10-5 major semi-final win over Forbes.

“That helps, playing at home always does. We know our ground and we should have a big crowd on hand to help us try and get over the line,” Levett said.

Emus won a turnover just a couple of phases after kick-off and, for the remainder of the first half, controlled the majority of possession and field position.

The greens made inroads early through the middle of the paddock and the sustained pressure eventually told when hooker Keith Howarth burrowed over from a pick-and-drive close to the line to open the scoring about a third of the way through the first half.

Matt Findlay added the extras from straight in front and 10 minutes later the front-rower kicked a penalty goal to extend his side’s lead to 10-0.

That woke Parkes up and the Boars did begin to maintain some possession and control the ball a lot better, but they still rarely managed to find their way into Emus’ half.

When they did, the greens turned them away relatively comfortably and they maintained their 10-point lead until after half-time.

The second half was all Emus, the greens scored another 27 unanswered points in the second period.

The first of those points came on the back of a Findlay pilfer 30 metres out from Emus’ line and then a magnificent tactical kick from Maxwell.

Parkes returned it with a kick of their own and Howarth completed his brace on the back of a rolling maul from the resulting lineout, although Findlay missed the relatively simple conversion attempt.

It mattered little, Maxwell scored after a strong individual effort five minutes later. Findlay’s conversion made it 22-0. Maxwell’s penalty goal five minutes later put the result to bed.

Clark plucked an errant Parkes pass out of the air and, showing the speed of a younger man, went 50 metres untouched before Andrew Cosgrove dived over in the dying stages too to complete the 37-0 win.

ORANGE EMUS 37 (Keith Howarth 2, Matt Clark, Glen Maxwell, Andrew Cosgrove tries; Matt Findlay 2 conversions, penalty goal; Maxwell conversion, penalty goal) def PARKES BOARS 0

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CSU Bathurst defied the odds again in Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup colts preliminary final, thumping Mudgee and scoring an unexpected grand final berth against Bathurst Bulldogs next weekend.

With the Mitchell Army in full cry on the sideline the students dominated the Wombats from start to finish. So much so the Mudgee said barely entered CSU’s half for the entire game.

The Mitchell Men finished the regular season fifth and have produced a remarkable run of sudden death victories to get to the decider.

First they downed Orange City (13-12), then Dubbo (20-17) but their best performance was easily against the Wombats, they won 23-0.

In third grade, Bulldogs downed Orange Emus 11-8 in a gritty affair to set-up a grand final showdown with Dubbo Kangaroos.

Although it was close the entire way through the game Bulldogs maintained control and their composure to seal the win, ending Emus’ season.