With a remarkable performance led by inspirational player-coach Willie Heta, Orange Hawks stunned defending Group 10 premier league champions Bathurst Panthers at Wade Park on Sunday afternoon, handing the men in black their first loss of 2019.
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As his Hawks completed at almost 90 per cent through the round six clash Heta, typical of his history in big games, was outstanding at five-eighth and had a hand or boot in just about all of the side's 22 points, the two blues keeping the potent Panthers to just 14.
He laid on tries for Jack Aumuller and Duncan Young with pinpoint grubbers and sent Rakai Tukehe over for a four-pointer as well, while Young's 29th minute penalty goal came directly after a Heta 40-20 as well.
In a clash that had all the hallmarks of a potential grand final preview Nathan Potts crashed over for Hawks' other try, and so good were the two blues skipper Kyle Byrnes said it was as good a performance as he can remember from the side.
"The challenge now is staying at that level though, and it's a big challenge because that was a really good performance," Byrne said, although he did identify one seven-minute period after half-time when his side conceded twice as a small lapse.
"But if we can do that every week, we'll be a big performing team and we'll go deep into this competition. The boys in the middle were outstanding and everyone was there for each other for the entire 80 minutes. When we do that, like we saw [on Sunday], the points come.
"And Willie, mate, he's just a freak. He leads us around but it does help having everyone running the right lines, guys like Rakai on those edges, because Willie will always find them. Knowing he will find you does make everyone's job easier though, that confidence."
The challenge now is staying at that level ... and it's a big challenge
- Hawks skipper Kyle Byrnes
Byrnes' praise of his own side's effort is, in a way, also an indication of just how strong this Panthers side really is too, considering it took a performance of that calibre for Hawks to take them down.
That wasn't lost on Panthers captain-coach Doug Hewitt either, especially considering he was forced to shuffle his side around in the lead-up, and then the men in black lost hooker Nick Loader in the 63rd minute too.
Although the two blues did have injury concerns of their own too, winger Jordan Baker and replacement Dean Vete were both taken from the field and didn't return, the latter at the same time as Loader after the two had a head clash.
"We had a few out and that did force a big reshuffle (and) for the most part I thought we were pretty good, even though we didn't get the result," Hewitt said.
"We're a side that likes to play quick footy as well and we didn't really get that [on Sunday], Hawks did plenty to try and slow it down and they got away with it the whole game.
"But it's still early in the season and it's only our first loss so it's not the end of the world, we'll just go back and work on what we need to."