Mid West League: Jacob Watkin hopes to mark his final day as a Mungoe with premiership celebrations

This Saturday afternoon at Diggings Oval Watkins could be a part of two Mid West League premiership success stories.

Not only will Watkin line up for his fifth consecutive Mid West League Cup grand final appearance for the Mungoes, but he coaches the Mungals league tag outfit which is aiming to make it seven straight premierships.

If he could taste glory in both it would be a farewell which could top the 2019 campaign where Watkin and his fellow Mungoes beat Orange Barbarians 30-0 on grand final day.

"This will be it for me in Bathurst, I've been with them for five years now, it's been a long time," the former CSU president said.

"I think I'm more nervous about the boys as I'll actually be in there, whereas with the girls I don't actually do too much, I just guide them.

"Every single year we've made the grand final in both the boys and the girls, so there's been a lot of highlights. I'd say 2019 when we won is definitely up there because I helped Billy [Dickinson] coach the boys that year."

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This year it will be Orange United that CSU will face in both deciders, Watkin acknowledging the work the Warriors have done to make grand final day.

"I reckon it's really good for both clubs, especially Warriors because they've only been around for two years. It shows people at their club have got it going in the right direction and building a nice culture there," he said.

With the weather and COVID-19 interrupting the season it has been four weeks since the CSU men and women won their respective major semi-finals.

It has made CSU's preparation tough, but Watkin said they have adjusted and the feeling amongst the playing group is good.

"We have been finding different spots around town to train, we had a training on Tuesday night which was really good," he said.

"It was wet conditions but there was hardly any dropped ball there was a lot of chat, you can tell the grand final is coming up because everyone is switched on and ready to go."

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For Watkin's Mungals outfit, one more win would make it an undefeated premiership. It won't be easy given their previous games against the Warriors have been close - 14-4 and 14-6 - but the coach has faith.

"They've felt like we haven't played our best footy yet but have still found ways to win. If they just stick to what they do and turn up for one another they'll be fine, they're all confident in their own abilities," he said.

"Mostly it will be about hanging onto the ball, both times we've played them we could have really put them away, but handling errors have let us down.

"They have a lot of spark in attack so they are a team you don't really want to give the ball back to, but we've hung our hat on our defence this year and week-in, week-out that's been able to get us home.

"We know if we defend well and hold onto the ball the points will come."

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