A rare hat-trick to forward Corey Cox has earned Nyngan Tigers their first win of the season in an upset against Orange Hawks.
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The visitors overcame a fast-finishing Hawks outfit 28-24 in the Peter McDonald Premiership at a freezing Wade Park on Sunday, June 2.
Cox's third was an individual effort for the ages, a one-on-one strip turning into a 40 metre sprint for the line, the covering Hawks defence unable to prevent him crashing over.
The former Macquarie Raider said he was like a fish out of water.
"In my younger days [I scored three] but not for a while, I'll take that one," he said.
"The boys in the middle got us down there with some good yardage and I was just lucky enough to play off the back of it.
"When I grabbed the ball it looked further than what it was. I'm not built for running, I'm more of a short stint person so when I had to go 40 it hurt the lungs."
Tigers pounce early
Both sides were coming off poor runs of form but the Two Blues were expected to get the two points playing at home.
It was Nyngan who jumped out of the blocks however, finding themselves 16-0 up inside 20 minutes.
Adam Hart pulled one back for Hawks with a great individual run and the sides went into the sheds with the scoreline reading 16-6.
Hawks coach Shane Rodney would have demanded a fast start after the break but instead could only watch as the Tigers piled on two more tries courtesy of Cox to stretch the lead to 28-6.
The home side was given a glimmer of hope when captain Nathan Potts barged over and they took it and ran, scoring three tries in a row to Harry Wald, Rakai Tuheke and Lochlan McLean, cutting the lead to just four points.
Ryan Manning missed some difficult conversions from out wide, preserving Nyngan's lead, one they didn't give up.
Hawks 'needed to win'
Rodney said it was a big missed opportunity for his side ahead of a tricky away trip to Forbes next up and called on senior players to lift.
"There are a few older boys that need to lead the way and show the young boys that every week you have to show up with attitude and effort," he said.
"Until they find that they won't get results so they need to be consistent.
"Today's disappointing, we needed to win.
"We'll try and find some positives out of it and we need to regroup really quick."
'They love their footy'
Cox said the win was a long time coming and thanked the travelling Tiger army, the majority of whom were wrapped in blankets, for their unwavering support.
"It's taken a bit to get there but we got there," he said.
"I think it just shows a bit of hard work [goes a long way]. It's taken us a while
"We fall off in patches and like we did today, we let our foot off the throat and happens all year, but it just shows that we can do it if we really have a go."
"That's what we haven't been able to do for the past couple of week.They'll put quick tries on us and we'll just slump and call the game off before it's done but we dug deep today and defended that lead we had.
"Let's see what' we can do for the rest of the year.
"One thing I'll say about Nyngan is it's the littlest town but the biggest crowd. They love their footy and they bleed for the gold and black."