BATHURST Panthers are out for revenge this Sunday when they travel to take on defending premiers Mudgee Dragons in Group 10 premier league action at Glen Willow Stadium.
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Dragons delivered a heartbreaking two-point defeat to the Panthers in last year’s preliminary final, a result the Bathurst men are aiming to put behind them.
Panthers sit second on the ladder and are looking for their fifth straight win this season.
Bathurst will travel confident of a victory, but considering last year’s journey to Glen Willow Stadium resulted in a loss they know what the Dragons are capable when playing on home turf.
Panthers manager Danny Dwyer said his side can’t afford a shred of complacency when making the trip north.
“It seems like their struggling to get their best team together on the field each week, but we have to remember that they were in this exact same position last year,” he said of the Dragons.
“They ended up staying around fourth to fifth all year then got some momentum towards the end of the season. You always go up there expecting the hardest Mudgee team to show up.”
Panthers will be bursting with enthusiasm for Sunday’s game following their brutal 58-0 demolition job of the Cowra Magpies at Sid Kallas Oval last round.
The play making capabilities of the Panthers spine and the work rate of the forward pack all came together to produce their most complete performance of the season.
“Todd [Barrow, coach] and I both said it was going to be a hard game. Us and the players we very sure of that. I guess that final score is still a bit of mystery,” Dwyer said.
“Apart from Warren Williams being out Cowra had a full strength team. Odds for predicting a final score like that would have been 1000 to one.”
When you see the statistics behind the Panthers win then the scoreline becomes easy to understand.
“Our completions were perfect. We had 16 from 20 in the first half, and that’s as good as we’ve had all of this season. It’s been our Achilles heel. We showed that if we hold onto the ball then we’ve got a lot of points in us,” Dwyer said.
“We had 30 points by half-time and that really took the wind out of Cowra’s sails. Our completions were a little down in the second half, 14 from 19, but that was also good.”
Dragons will also come into the match off a comfortable win. They dismantled bottom-placed Blayney Bears 56-10.
Panthers have named an identical starting 13 to the match against Cowra.
