Bathurst Giants keen for home opener and early Bushrangers contests

The recent release of the senior draw sees the Giants welcome the Orange Tigers to George Park 1 on Saturday April 29 for the opening game of the season before their first trip of the year sees the Bathurst side take on Dubbo Demons in round two.

That leaves rivals Bathurst Bushrangers as the round three contest, but they won't have to wait as long to see each other the second time around as they'll meet again in round five.

The Giants will look to get off to a winning start at home under a new era for the club with new head coach Shane Broes and assistant coaches Darryl Macauley, Mick Sloan and Steve Mann.

Macauley said it's always great to get a season underway on familiar ground.

"You get a little bit of an advantage. You get the crowd and you can build your game plan around your ground, and ours being a particularly small ground we can structure a lot of things around that," he said.

"Sometimes you're not sure where other teams might have improved, and there can be a little bit of uncertainty there, so having the certainty of your home ground support and knowledge is great."

The other time this season that the Giants will have games against the same opponent within two weeks' time will be the Dubbo Demons in rounds six and eight.

Helpfully, from a Giants perspective, both of those matches will be at Bathurst.

Macauley said he doesn't mind an uneven style to a draw's structure.

"I don't think anyone would disagree that it's a tough business putting draws together, especially when there's uneven numbers between reserve grade, women's and tier one men's," he said.

"With the smaller number of teams you have be used to coming up against the same team regularly. There can be good things to come out of that. For example, you can have changes you need to make that are fresh in your mind.

"Bushrangers have been the benchmark for a number of years now, so to get them twice early in rounds three and five will be a test for our team."

Giants and Bushrangers will also come together for the last game of the regular season in round 15.

That marks a change from what the Giants have become accustomed to in recent times.

"Traditionally we've found ourselves travelling to Dubbo in the last round to try and place ourselves in a good spot for finals," Macauley said.

"We know Bushrangers will be thereabouts, and it'll be interesting to see how Orange and Dubbo come back after last year.

"Our team was definitely good enough to win it all last year, and we certainly came close, so all eyes are on us to see how we back up from last year."

Macauley said the pre-season has been a productive one with the senior men's side having undergone its coaching change for 2023.

"It's been a really interesting pre-season with a new coaching group involved. Some players respond to different coaching styles and I think that's what this group brings," he said.

"It allows us to concentrate on certain aspects of the game, whether it be the forwards, mids, backs or our rotations around the field.

"The guys have had a really good pre-season. It'll be interesting to see how they front up on game day, and Orange are always a reasonably formidable opponent who bring a strong game across.

"The leadership under Shane Broes' coaching is really good. He's a personable guy who cares about the players and he's got a strong mind in terms of football play. I'm really glad to be involved with it."

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