ADEN Macdougall knows CSU has reached a point where it is do or die if they wish to make this year's New Holland Cup grand final, but he and his fellow students are ready to give it a 'good crack'.
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Since winning last year's decider things have been tough for CSU. The coronavirus has led to online classes and no students in residency, draining the pool of available players.
On top of that some of the 2019 stars have departed.
Macdougall has slotted into outside centre this season to replace one of those stars - try-scoring machine Regan Hughes. It has not been an easy task, but it's a challenge he is enjoying.
"It's definitely not easy shoes to fill, the best player in the competition leaves and you get told to go there," Macdougall laughed.
"But it's fun, I get to play next to Nick Plunkett who knows what he's doing which makes my job a lot easier that's for sure.
"It's been really tight for numbers this year, especially when a lot of other teams have had league players from Group 10 and Group 11 come over and play union for the year.
"It's been a lot tougher for us, but as long as we can field two teams every week we'll give it a crack."
This year is Macdougall's second with CSU, having made the switch after being part of Easts colts side in the Shute Shield.
The different between the two competitions has been obvious - the physicality - but now Macdougall is enjoying more regular game time it is an aspect he is adapting too.
"It's a lot different, I was in under 20s at Easts and I was playing with people my age, it was I guess boys against boys. But then you come out here and verse teams like Mudgee and Parkes and their forward packs are just full of adults, so it's definitely a step up in physicality for sure," he said.
"Last year I had a disjointed season, I didn't play too many games just because I had a personal training course in Sydney and I had to go back for practicals pretty much every second weekend.
"This year has been a bit more solid because I've been here full-time."
One game Macdougall did miss was last Saturday's against undefeated competition leaders Mudgee. He was one of six changes CSU was forced to make and they suffered a heavy 74-5 loss.
It leaves CSU in fourth spot with four weeks remaining to try and force their way into the top two and advance to the decider. That mission begins in Dubbo on Saturday against the Rhinos.
CSU beat Dubbo 15-12 in the first round and will be bolstered by the return of Macdougall, winger Harry Hunt, second rower Lachie Buckton and prop Lachie Christie-Johnston.
"Luckily we've got a lot of boys who are optimistic and no matter what happened the week before, we'll still come out and give it a crack," Macdougall said.
"It's round two, it's a fresh start and we're all pretty optimistic, we're pretty keen to start round two like we did round one and get a win, then we want to try and continue that on.
"For us to get tin that top two, in our remaining games we have have to be pretty flawless. We've talked about it as a group what we want to achieve this round, we've just got to go out and do it I guess. We're optimistic, we'll have a good crack."
