When Ethan Mckellar took up the coaching reins at Orange CYMS he knew he had a big rebuild job on his hands.
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CYMS have endured a brutal Peter McDonald Premiership campaign to date, sitting last in the Group 10 pool with a points difference of negative 252.
Heavily contributing to the situation the green and golds find themselves in is the mass off-season exodus of players.
No less than eight players have left the side that lost a preliminary final 40-30 to eventual premiers Forbes Magpies.
But fortunes finally changed on Saturday (July 1) when CYMS upset Nyngan Tigers 30-28 to break an eight-game winless run.
For Mckellar it was as sweet as winning a premiership with fears the proud club would remain on zero points all year.
"Everyone was over the moon, it has seemed like an eternity to get these two points and it honestly felt like we had won a grand final," he said.
"It sure does give a lot of validation for the hard work that everyone has been putting in.
"From each individual player in the club to the committee members and even the supporters.
"To finally get rewarded for these efforts just makes it worth everything."
The match doubled as the CYMS annual charity day with the Torie Finnane Foundation the beneficiary.
The club auctioned off its special pink jerseys after the game with around $7000 raised for the charity.
But after the celebrations comes another challenge in the shape of a weekend road trip to face Bathurst St Pat's.
Mckellar said his troops needed to replicate the self-belief they showed against Nyngan and use it as a blueprint for the rest of the campaign.
"It's definitely important to continue with winning," he said.
"The self belief was just really there with every individual on the weekend.
"I think the key was how we went through our warm-up on the day. The energy and chat was just so positive. I knew if we took that out into the game we would give it a red hot crack which we did.
"Staying in that grind and then picking our moments to play eyes up footy. It's something we have tried to get right all year and on Saturday it just really clicked."
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