Ryan pleased to see local juniors in first grade

Nick Guthrie. Daily Liberal - 9 Sep 2016

MENTOR: Coach Tim Ryan isn't taking any of CYMS' success for granted.

On Sunday Dubbo CYMS has the rare chance to win three straight Group 11 premierships.

Since 1968 that has only ever been done twice – by the Wellington Cowboys from 1990-92 and by the Fishies, when they won four straight from 2001-04.

But despite all that, Ryan is adamant he hasn’t thought at all about the chance to create history.

“All it is is a team that got together since January and has trained to do one job,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what happened one year, five years, or 20 years ago, it matters what’s happened since January.”

Ryan named a 17-man squad earlier this week, with youngster Jayden Merritt and prop Ilisoni Vonomateiratu the reserves but the coach added he won’t settle on a final 17 until game day.

He added he was wary of the Forbes “giant killers”, after the Magpies defeated the Nyngan twice, Parkes twice and Dubbo Macquarie during the last two months.

But despite that, the undefeated two-time defending premiers go in to Sunday’s match with confidence and Ryan said one of the most pleasing aspects for him is that the bulk of the CYMS side began their junior footy at the club.

“It’s good to see the young fellas enjoying themselves, doing well and having success but we haven’t had much yet, there’s two sides with the chance of success on Sunday,” he said.

“It’s good to see the young fellas play for each other and there’s a lot of local juniors. I think nine or 10 came through the juniors here and I get enjoyment from that.”

The Fishies’ grand final battle against Forbes is expected to kick off at 2pm on Sunday at Caltex Park.