SEALING a home grand final when there are still five rounds of the AFL Central West men's tier one season remaining - it certainly ranks as a Bathurst Bushrangers highlight.
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In beating the Orange Tigers 12-9-81 to 6-8-44 at Waratahs Sport Ground, the Bushrangers made it 10 wins in a row for the season.
Closest rivals the Dubbo Demons and Bathurst Giants are 24 points behind the Bushrangers on the ladder, while the frontrunners also have a remarkable for and against percentage of 246.4.
So while it is not the first time the Bushrangers have earned a minor premiership, to do it with a third of the season still remaining highlights just how impressive 2022 has been thus far.
Even still, a minor premiership and home grand final is not enough to satisfy. The Bushrangers are hungry for a flag.
"Obviously it's nice to do that, seal the minor premiership with a few rounds to go, so now we're just trying to build some momentum," co-coach Tim Hunter said.
"So it's nice, it's good for the club and a good position to be in, but obviously you don't play for that, we've got a long way to go. There are five rounds to shore everything up and make sure we're at our best when we need to be."
With Hunter one of a number of Bushrangers not able to play against the Tigers due to injury, Saturday's round 10 match was one the Bathurst outfit approached with caution.
As expected the Tigers provided a stern challenge, at half-time there was only 10 points in it as the Bushrangers led 5-7-37 to 4-3-27.
More injuries tested the Bushrangers - replacement ruckman Steve Grundy hurt his knee so Adrian Hickey had to slot into the unfamiliar role while defender Matt Luther did not see out the match.
But under pressure the Bushrangers showed their class. A six-goal final term ensured the unbeaten run continued.
"It was actually a really, really solid win. We've sort of said throughout the year that they're [Tigers] probably going better than a few of the results reflect," Hunter said.
"They had a good win last week and this was a really close game, for the most part there was only a goal or two in it and we just had a really solid last quarter.
"We had a couple of players go down during the game so we were down on rotations, but the boys really dug deep. We were really proud of them, it was a well fought win.
"There were some blokes that really stood up Bill Watterson had his best game of the year, he was huge in the last quarter to really spur the boys on.
"Our backline as a whole really stood up under the pump, they had to grind it out."
Though the final scoreline was much closer than when the Bushrangers put 173 points on the Tigers in round five and 157 in round seven, Hunter was still proud of the effort.
"Everyone sorted lifted when we needed, the boys were pretty wrecked by the end of it," he said.
"It was really good to see, to win when things aren't going your way is really important."
BATHURST BUSHRANGERS 12-9-81 (Hugh Templeton 3, Isaac Coldicott 3, Jordan Price 2, Ben Horn 2, James Smith, Matt Archer) defeated ORANGE TIGERS 6-8-44 (Darren Bush 2, Nicholas Modra, Luke Rothnie, Samuel Proudfoot, Peter Byrne)
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