Shawn Townsend, like so many others at Dubbo CYMS, is all too aware a changing of the guard is approaching the club.
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There's been a core group of players who have been around the first grade side for the best part of a decade and have been crucial in keeping the club at the pinnacle of bush footy.
While the likes of Jyie Chapman, Jarryn Powyer, Ben Marlin, Alex Bonham and Billy Sing are in no way veterans, some are now into their 30s with families of their own and they've achieved almost all their is to achieve in western region footy.
The next generation has certainly learnt about what's required to maintain those lofty standards as first grade coach Townsend has put his charges through an intense pre-season program.
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CYMS is well-known for it's strict training regime and focus and fitness and increasing that was never something Townsend specifically planned to do, but he admitted losing last season's inaugural Peter McDonald Premiership grand final could have played a role.
"We've really got into them," Townsend laughed of pre-season.
"I don't know what my mindset was. I don't know whether it was the loss last year and it just made me think we need to be bigger, better, tougher and stronger for longer periods.
"And there's been some new people and some young kids now and the expectation is if you want to play with us and play with Jarryn, Chappo and Benny then the first thing is, you have to be fit.
"We were going to get into it and if you don't want to, fine, but if you do, we'll reward you."
The early results of the demanding fitness program are positive.
On Saturday, CYMS defeated Orange CYMS at Molong in the now annual Foundation Fathers Cup pre-season fixture.
Townsend's troops ran out 38-18 winners, with a number of the young players who will be asked to play a key role this season impressing.
"We're going to have a new nucleus in the next two or three years so we've got to make sure these 21 and 22 year olds know what the expectations are and hopefully it rubs off and we take that good, grinding style from training into the game," Townsend added.
Kyjuan Crawford again stood out, having already been praised by his coach during pre-season, and he's locked in for a first grade spot come round one.
A regular in reserve grade last season, Crawford has worked to take his skills and fitness to another level during pre-season.
"He killed them," Townsend of Crawford's impact in the cup game.
"He's got pretty fit and he's got good skills and he just looks like he's hard to tackle. He's naturally kid and he's a good kid and not much fazes him.
"He could play lock or second-row or even centre of five-eighth so he's a bit of a luxury there at the other moment."
Tom Stimpson and Jaymn Cleary also got through plenty of work on Saturday.
![The Dubbo CYMS defence works to bring down Orange CYMS captain-coach Ethan McKellar on Saturday. Picture by Carla Freeman The Dubbo CYMS defence works to bring down Orange CYMS captain-coach Ethan McKellar on Saturday. Picture by Carla Freeman](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/dCXpDgwTEgA52iNCe5aWtJ/c209cd80-610d-40bc-aa7d-bad8ca3c2aa7.jpeg/r0_180_5408_3220_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Stimpson and Cleary played plenty of first grade last season and on Saturday they played almost the entire game as Townsend was eager to see how they performed when feeling the pinch at the back-end of each half while newcomer Jayden Hyde followed up a top showing at the West Wyalong Knockout with another promising performance at Molong.
While the win was pleasing, it was the little things and the work-rate of a number of players which meant the most to Townsend and the coaches.
"It's not so much the win we were worried about, we had a few boxes we wanted to tick," he said.
"They were mainly around effort and there were some goals there and the scoreboard didn't worry me. It was more those effort areas and we got them right most of the time.
"We're on track."
While the performance was pleasing, Saturday was also about much more than what happened on the field.
It was a bumper day of action with the two CYMS sides playing in three grades - Orange won under 18s and league tag - while Orange United defeated the Dubbo club's reserve grade outfit.
The match was taken to Molong as a way of helping a community still getting back to its feet after last year's devastating flooding.
Sections of the town were wiped out and both the Molong and Cabonne junior footy clubs lost a huge amount of equipment.
All money raised on Saturday went back to those clubs in order to help them get up and running ahead of the new season.
"It was a good day," Townsend said.
"They put on a good day and I hope they raised a bit of money out of it.
"We really enjoyed it, the whole club did. It was a good hit-out for everyone."
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