Forbes Magpies will be looking to continue their strong form this Sunday when they take on the Nyngan Tigers, following on from last weekend’s top performance against Narromine.
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Magpies first grade captain coach Jake Grace said last Sunday’s 44-14 win against Narromine was one of their better games so far.
“That was one of our best performances all year, I’m really happy with how things are poking along,” he said.
“We’ve only lost one game to CYMS but that was probably a good thing … the boys know we’ve got to keep working hard to keep up with the top teams.”
Despite coming off a win, Grace said he’s certainly not taking sixth-ranked Nyngan for granted, especially as they’re playing them at Nyngan.
“They’ll be pretty handy,” he said.
“We’ll definitely have to play the full 80 minutes to beat them.
“They lost last week against Macquarie so they’ll be coming off a loss and will want to play well at home.
“They always play well at home.”
Nyngan HAS two Western Rams players on their side - a halfback and a hooker - who Grace knows will be tough after playing with the pair in the Western Rams side.
“Our forward pack will have to make sure we don’t fall asleep on the hooker and defend well and the halves will be putting plenty of pressure on their halfback,” he said.
Grace said as long as the Magpies are prepared for Nyngan the best they can be, that’ll be good enough.
“We’ll go out there preparing for Nyngan to be strong at home,” he said.
“We’ve got to match it and beat them.”
This weekend Martin Herbert is out with a rib cartilage injury, while there’s still a question mark over whether Zac Merritt will be right to play.
“We’ll give him right up until the day to prove his fitness but at this stage it’s looking like he’ll still be out,” Grace said.
Three young players made their first grade debut last Sunday including Mitch Andrews who was voted players’ player, Dylan Gunn who came off the bench to score two tries and Isaac Scott who came off the bench and got a good start.
Grace said it was also great to have Mitch Burke back last weekend.
“He was really good for the overall structure of our team, it was a big boost,” he said.
There are still a couple of players yet to be finalised in Sunday’s line-up due to injuries but at this stage the line-up is below:
1 Mitch Andrews, 2 Matt Toole, 3 Brodie Hodges, 4 Ethan Gaffney, 5 Jarrod Reid, 6 Mitch Burke, 7 Matt Roylance, 8 Ben Robinson, 9 Hayden Bolam, 10 Ben Maguire, 11 Andrew Grogan, 12 Traie Merritt, 13 Jake Grace, 14 Matt Woolnough, 15 Ricky Brett, 16 Isaac Scott.
