Based on the opening four rounds of the competition Orange Hawks look set to be the enigma of the 2017 Group 10 premier league season.
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The Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde or Harvey ‘Two-Face’ Dent of the competition, if you will.
Hawks have been downright spectacular at times this winter, proven in the two blues’ season-opening thumping of the Blayney Bears and then again in the side’s crucial victory over reigning premiers Mudgee.
Hawks’ problem is they’ve been equally as ordinary in the other two rounds, first thumped by Oberon and then taken to the cleaners by Bathurst Panthers on Saturday afternoon at Pride Park.
There’s little doubt if the side can produce its best consistently it will be finals bound.
Captain-coach Willie Heta knows that, it’s just a matter of him and his troops finding that consistency.
And for him, a lot of the reason Hawks are so sporadic is attitude.
“I’ve picked it up in both our losses now, it’s probably attitude, as soon as points have been scored against us, our heads have gone down. We’ve looked for the problem but it just hasn’t been solved,” Heta said.
“It’s hard to find out where it’s going to start for us. It doesn’t look like we’re going to be a side that will chase points when we’re behind, so we obviously need to start well and get ourselves into games early.”
So how do the two blues fix it?
“I think it starts at training for us. We have a few guys missing, and we had a few first graders in reserves (last weekend) because of that,” Heta explained.
“As soon as we can start getting it together there, it’ll come together on the field. We’ve proved we can do it against the quality sides, like Mudgee.”
Heta is hoping next weekend’s local derby against Orange CYMS can kick start it.