During Tim Ryan’s six-year reign at the helm of Dubbo CYMS he has strived for perfection, always wanting his players to be better.
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In Saturday’s NSW Challenge Cup final the experienced mentor got as close to a flawless performance as he arguably ever will.
CYMS completed all but two sets in Saturday’s 62-18 demolition of the much-fancied Guildford Owls at Apex Oval.
In a competition which pits the best clubs in the country against their city counterparts, an Owls side which competes in the Ron Massey Cup and had a side physically larger than the Fishies had all the makings of a cup-winning outfit.
However, CYMS out-enthused the men from Parramatta from first whistle to last and were fully deserving of the commanding victory.
“That was unreal. I think we were 12 from 12 (in completions) in the first 20 minutes and that set the game up,” Ryan said after the momentous win.
“It was a very, very good win … you don’t get much better than that.”
In a catalogue of outstanding performances over the past two decades, the way an under-manned CYMS began the match was up there with the best any side in green and white has been.
Wade Kavanagh ran riot from dummyhalf early while teenage halfback Bayden Searle played well beyond his years and he set up the first try with a perfect grubber for Scott Burgess in the seventh minute.
That set the tone for the rest of the game and while the Owls hinted at a comeback when they went into the sheds at half-time down by 10 at 22-12, the sending off of Caleb Kasiano early in the second stanza ruined any chance of that.
Kasiano was marched for kicking at an opposition player after a tackle involving Kavanagh brothers Lincoln and Wade and that was just one disappointing part of a performance which Owls assistant coach Todd McKeown described as embarrassing.
“They played very good football,” McKeown said of CYMS.
“They deserve the win, deserve to enjoy it and we need to pay the price for a poor effort.
“From a club’s point of view we are a bit embarrassed about how we performed … but we’ll come back from it and hopefully we get a chance to come back next year.”
McKeown said his side made “dumb errors” and CYMS made the Owls pay time and time again.
After Burgess opened the scoring, CYMS went at a point a minute and led 22-0 following further tries to Corey Cox, Jesse Wighton and a brilliant Alex Bonham effort which came after the Fishies shifted the ball to the right on the last tackle and a Jyie Chapman chip kick was fielded by Brad Pickering.
Guildford hooker Daniel Vasek darted over from dummyhalf to get his side on the board and when he smartly put Dylan McKeown over there seemed to be a shift in momentum.
But the CYMS defence held firm up until half-time and then the sending off of Kasiano three minutes into the second stanza all but signalled the end of the contest.
Alex Ronayne, who was again a workhorse in the back-row, scored a double, as did winger John Grey while Brad Pickering had another fine day with the boot and landed seven of his eight attempted conversions.
Making the win all the more impressive is the fact CYMS were without the likes of the injured Luke Jenkins, Ben Marlin, Billy Sing and Jordan Reynolds while Corey Drew and Hamish Astill were both unavailable, the latter due to the fact he was stuck in Bali after a volcano forced all flights to be cancelled.
“Wes Maas came back and we had two juniors on the bench who only made their first grade debut last week but that core group was up for it and we were ready to go,” Ryan said.
“It’s a great thing and we had a great crowd which came to watch us today. We’re all very happy.”
The Owls were also missing a host of players, namely former Parramatta Eel Matt Ryan and fellow NRL representative Josh Lewis.
“We’ve had a bad run of injuries, we’ve had four players do ACLs and we lost our captain Matty Ryan to a neck injury which ended his seaosn,” McKeown said.
“But we’re not making excuses. We had other players come in and some failed to step up to the mark but others did so it’s not all doom and gloom. But it is very disappointing.”
- DUBBO CYMS 62 (Corey Cox 2, Alex Ronayne 2, John Grey 2, Scott Burgess, Jesse Wighton, Alex Bonham, Wade Kavanagh, Joe Clarke tries; Brad Pickering 7, Cox 2 goals) def GUILDFORD OWLS 18 (Daniel Vasek, Dylan McKeown tries; Dominic Reardon 2, Josh Maree goals)