Orange Hawks captain-coach Willie Heta says his side is focused on building on its promising performance against CYMS last weekend, he’s confident if the two blues can do that they’ll find themselves back in the winners’ circle come Sunday evening.
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The seventh-placed Hawks host Workies at Wade Park on Sunday and considering the Lithgow side is in a similar position, sitting sixth, Heta’s viewing the round six Group 10 premier league clash as the perfect chance to do so.
Hawks were strong against CYMS despite losing 40-30, and Heta says that scoreline indicates where the two blues need to improve the most.
“We are leaking a lot of points so we need to tighten up defensively quite a bit,” he explained.
“I’m not sure if it’s a mental strength thing, maybe we’re just not quite fit enough but I’m sure if we keep chipping away then we’ll be able to keep improving and that will turn into a few results for us.
“I don’t really think there’s any other (major issues) we have, I say that we’re focusing on ourselves every week but that is what we’re doing.
“I don’t know much about Lithgow so we’ll just keep trying to build and look after what we’re doing.”
Heta’s named an all but unchanged side from last weekend, although hooker Jordan Dwyer will spend some time on the sidelines after injuring his knee in that loss to the green and golds.
Jake Blimka will start at rake as a result and Sam Coyte comes onto the bench to fill that void.
Viane Falaniko has also returned to the starting side on the wing, with Glen Maxwell returning to the bench.
Bobbie Brown has also retained the No.7 jersey following a solid showing at halfback last weekend, he started the year at hooker but looked far more dangerous from first receiver.
Workies will be full of confidence on Sunday, the Chris Rhodes-captained Lithgow side is coming into this weekend’s game on the back of some promising performances – like Hawks.
After scoring their first win of the season a fortnight ago over the battling Blayney Bears, Workies pushed Cowra to the brink. Lithgow led the Magpies 12-10 at half-time, before ultimately losing 32-18. Kick off is 2.30pm.
- ORANGE HAWKS: 1 Jedd Kennedy, 2 Jordan Baker, 3 Jack Aumuller, 4 Sione Tongia, 5 Viane Falaniko, 6 Willie Heta, 7 Bobbie Brown, 8 Krus Robinson, 9 Jake Blimka, 10 Sia Nomani, 11 Ethan McKellar, 12 Brett Morgan, 13 Nathan Potts; Bench: 14 Sam Coyte, 15 Glen Maxwell, 16 Arty Shead, 17 Jack Middleton