Bathurst Panthers five-eighth Nic Tilburg may have scored an incredible solo try but credits his side's unbeaten streak to their fondness for one another.
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Panthers won their third close match in a row, upsetting Orange CYMS 20-14 at Wade Park on Sunday, May 19.
A clinical opening half set the visitors on their way and despite a late surge by CYMS, they held on with players from both sides on their haunches at full-time.
Tilburg said every player in the Panthers' line-up had full confidence in the man next to him.
"To get those wins in these closer games, that's what we've been building on," he said.
"I think our last two games have been won by two points, so I probably like to win by more, but it's great to do that now before later in the year.
"I think it gives us a lot of confidence in each other that someone's going to turn up for you, particularly in those tight matches.
"You're not going to be left by yourself, which is great for team morale and leaves the boys a lot closer together for sure."
Panthers shut the door on runaway CYMS
CYMS had flown out of the blocks in every Peter McDonald Premiership game so far in 2024 and enjoyed a lot of ball deep inside Panthers' half.
But where other teams have previously folded, Bathurst refused to budge.
They scored first through human wreaking ball McCoy White before Ryan Griffin hit back fro the home side.
White was perhaps lucky to escape a report for a head-high shot on Jesse Buchan with the CYMS fullback replaced afterwards.
Tilburg then showed some great initiative, shrugging off a would be tackler and chipping and chasing his own kick to score a remarkable individual try.
Speedster Hadyn Edwards added a third and two minutes into the second half Tieryn Toomey-White crossed out wide to leave CYMS shell shocked at 20-6.
A double to Dion Jones, the second of which came via a clever leap and tap down by Dylan Kelly off a Dan Mortimer kick, gave CYMS hope and they continued to persevere right to the final siren.
Tilburg said the team had stressed the importance of not letting each other down against the competition's form side.
"They're a good footy team obviously, you can see from their scores in the last few weeks," he said.
"They definitely didn't go away, so but we were expecting that obviously they're on top of the table. so we show up with attitude, just keep showing up and became a work for us seems to have done the job.
"You don't want to get ahead of yourself.
"We knew we had to work hard particularly in the early stage of the year but we've been rewarded for it, which is really nice."
'Reality check' for green and golds
CYMS coach Jack Buchanan said his side didn't earn the right to play the expansive football they have become renowned for early in the season.
"We probably didn't start the way we wanted to the first half," he said.
"We were a bit sloppy, we didn't earn the right to play footy so it probably panned out the way we deserved.
"It's probably a good reality check.
"We had a great start to the season, but that's a good way to show that wins just don't happen."
