DEAN Oxley is a coach who likes a challenge, who likes to set goals and who likes to make the most of any situation.
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They are qualities which last year helped him guide the Central West Blue Bulls to Caldwell Cup glory and the Bathurst Bulldogs to a Blowes Clothing Cup premiership.
Now they are qualities which are driving Oxley to adjust to the challenges posed by the coronavirus.
The pandemic led to the cancellation of this year's Country Championships, a tournament which was to be played on the June long weekend.
Naturally a Caldwell Cup defence was the primary goal and Oxley and his assistant coaches Phil English and Mitch Wakefield had already begun preparing.
They had done "some reconnaissance work" watching Newcastle play Illawarra and the Bulls conducted an internal squad trial on March 22 involving 30 squad members.
That trial was one Oxley described as "high quality and high intensity" and given there were another 20 squad members who were unavailable, the signs were positive.
"It was an excellent trial, it was the first time I'd ever done this, but we kicked off the season with a game," Oxley said.
"I normally build them up to that place, but there's a lot of people who wanted to compete for positions and I thought the best way we can do that is to get them on the park.
"It was great to see the engagement with a number of new faces and number of clubs who want to be involved with the Blue Bulls.
"We had a large contingent from Emus, which has been one of our strongholds in the Central West for a long time, so I was very buoyed with that.
"So we'd actually started the program, obviously it's on hold now. So it's now just about communication, staying in touch and making sure people don't get isolated."
The cancellation of the Country Championships mean that the Blue Bulls probably won't play any representative rugby this season.
Given the financial toll of the coronavirus pandemic on players and sponsors, even trial matches are unlikely.
It is disappointing, but Oxley has now set himself new challenges and new goals.
He wants to, with the help of Mudgee based English and Cootamundra's Wakefield, assemble an even more formidable Blue Bulls unit for 2021.
That means when the Central West Rugby Union competitions do resume - a ruling from Rugby Australia has placed them on hold until at least June 1 - they will watch as many games involving as many clubs as possible.
It will give them a better idea of the talent that lies within the ranks of the Central West.
"I've always said we have the disadvantage of having such a large zone, but the advantage of having a large zone is that we have a lot of quality players," Oxley said.
"If we can access the best players in the Central West, we win the Country Champs in my opinion. So my job is to make sure we make this opportunity available to everybody.
"Having a coach like Mitch from that area of the zone is really important because that is a harder one to access.
"Having Phil from Mudgee able to see the northern side of the competition helps too.
"Now not being committed to Bulldogs, I was going to travel around to places like Boorowa where there are some Shute Shield players and Canberra first grade players that have come into the town.
"There are also some Shute Shield players that have come into Parkes, so my plan was to go around and watch those games and connect with some of those outlying sides.
"Whereas last year I was contained to the Blowes Cup, this year I was going to do more of the job I should have been doing in the sense of visiting those perimeters."
Oxley is clear exactly what kind of players he wants to see in Central West jumpers. Naturally talent and experience are good assets, but so too is adaptability and creativity.
"The level of performance we hit at the Country Championships last year was a different style of play that I've been trying to implement - an open, flowing, fast style of football," Oxley said.
"I am looking for players who fit into that mould."
After it proved to be a big success in 2019, Oxley, his coaching staff and Central West Rugby Union chief executive officer Matt Tink are also working on organising another pre-season tour to New Zealand.
That tour saw the Blue Bulls split into Central West Gold and Central West Blue sides. They won five of their six games, gelled as a unit and gave Oxley a deeper understanding of their strengths.
Off the field the group watched on as the Crusaders trained before picking the brains of a handful of All Blacks and Black Ferns, and being put through their paces by some of Canterbury's best coaches - including ITM Cup head coach Joe Maddock.
"He [Tink] had connections to the Crusaders which gave us an outstanding experience and he also has connections with the Highlanders," Oxley said.
"So having that, we get to see another franchise, we get to have another experience. It will be New Zealand, there's no need to go anywhere else, we are not going for a holiday, we are going for a football experience.
"The geographic limitations of our zone means having them together for a week is just gold and it really paid dividends at the carnival last year."
While Oxley hopes players are keeping fit and continuing to build camaraderie on social media platforms during the shutdown, he can't wait for the 2020 Central West Rugby Union season to kick off.
"Sport is galvanising and having a group of people share that same target, that goal, that's what it's all about," he said. "The game will come back and the game is really important to the community and people are just really on hold waiting."
No doubt he's on the only one that holds such an opinion.
