Next weekend's Bathurst 1000 was set to wreak havoc on the Centennials outfit's player stocks and the Warriors agreed to shift the game, although the move does impact last season's beaten grand finalists too.

Most notably they'll be without their new marquee player in former Western Zone big-hitter Mick Curtale, who's linked with the Warriors from Centennials.

Curtale, who shared the Carl Sharpe Medal with Ryan Gurney in the Bulls' 2017-18 title win, isn't available on Sunday, not with the clash being moved at such short notice.

The prospect of him opening the tournament against his old club was a mouth-watering one, but there's little doubt how big an impact he could have for the Warriors.

Curtale's played five summers in the Royal Hotel Cup for the Bulls, Blayney and Cowra, and has crunched 549 runs in that period, although his average of a tick under 27 does little justice to the amount of damage he can do.

He's picked up 17 wickets at 24 with his tweakers too though, so it's not tough to see his all-round value.

"His numbers are good but even then they don't tell the whole story. He's played for Western Zone and he's dominated in the (Cricket NSW Plan B) Regional Bash too, he's got a bucketload of experience and he's a natural leader too," Orange City skipper Ed Morrish said.

"Honestly he's a pretty intimidating bloke to play against and he can do some serious damage when he gets going, so we're hopeful he does more often than not and we're pleased to have him on our side this summer.

"It's a shame he can't play this weekend, it would've been a pretty exciting way to start the competition but he'll be on deck for our later games in the group stage.

"Unfortunately it's not just Curtale that's unavailable this week, obviously people weren't expecting the season to start so early so it has thrown a spanner in the works. We've got a lot of depth in the club though."

Outside Morrish, the Warriors will have the likes of metronomic quick Brett Causer and hard-hitting all-rounder Shaun Grenfell on hand though, and they will have the services of Bathurst's Jaden Ekert as a substitute marquee.

The competition's rule allow teams to nominate more than one marquee player, however only one can play at a time, with Ekert filling that role on Sunday.

Ekert provides plenty of firepower with the bat, with his BDCA opening round century against Bathurst City last year being one of the most explosive innings of the season.

"It's good to have Jaden on board, he'll add quite a bit to the side and we'll stay have plenty of experience and, like I said, we've got depth so I think we should be okay. We'll only focus on what we're doing anyway because we've not heard much out of Centennials' camp for this or the [Bathurst-Orange Inter-District Cricket competition]," Morrish said.

"I'm sure they'll be tough and particularly at this time of year you probably can't read much into anything you hear anyway, there'll be a lot of cobwebs being blown out I think.

"So it's really about trying to do the basics right - tight lines, hold your catches, take your singles - and getting away with a win, we can build from that in the later games."

Sunday's clash will start at 10am at Country Club Oval.