The official start of the 2017 Group 10 competition is on April 9, but Orange Hawks and Blayney Bears will kick things off a little earlier this winter.
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The two blues travel to Blayney’s King George Oval on Saturday, with the clubs’ league tag sides playing from 10.30am.
The girls’ fixture is the only one this weekend, while all three men’s grades – under 18s, first divsion and premier league – will go toe-to-toe on April 2, still a week earlier than the rest of the competition.
All eyes are on the league tag on Saturday, though, with the champion Bears girls to take on a new-look Hawks outfit, one that’s already tasted success over the Group 10 premiers in 2017.
Hawks knocked Blayney out of the Western Challenge in the pre-season, and Hawks coach Marty Lyden is confident his two blues girls can rack up another victory after that 4-1 thriller at Canowindra.
“I think so, we’ve been training really well and I think the girls are itching to get into the competition stuff now,” Lyden said.
Blayney’s stunning premiership win in 2016 was the first time the club has won a senior Group 10 title since 1999.
With Liv Bird, the reigning Group 10 player of the year, and gun fullback Sophie Stammers again in the fray for the champs, beating Blayney won’t be easy.
But Lyden has been hatching a plan to do so for most of the off-season.
“They’ve got a couple of really good players in that team, but if we can shut them down … slid well when we need to defensively, then that’ll go a long way to winning the game,” he said.
The girls kick off at 10.30am on Saturday.