Cherrypickers first grade captain Tom Bush is confident Young can shake up the Group Nine finals race with victory over front runners Gundagai on Sunday.
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While identifying upcoming games against sixth-placed Brothers, seventh-placed Junee and fifth-placed Temora as must-wins, Bush also has belief his side can beat any team in the competition.
"We have the ability to beat anyone but we've been making too many mistakes. It's been very good to win a couple on the trot, it's definitely taken some pressure off after a very poor start," Bush said.
Young secured their third win of the season last week with a narrow one-point victory over Wagga Kangaroos.
Bush, like coach Roy Jewitt after the game, labelled the performance "ugly".
"We felt like we just couldn't complete, it's something we've really struggled with all season."
Bush highlighted that Young played some of its best football in their loss to Gundagai in round two. After trailing 28-6 at the break they stormed home to be within four points of the lead, however went down 38-30.
"We were very close. We take confidence from that game that we can beat any team. When we're completing we're just as good if not better than them," he said.
"We've just struggled to string 80 minutes together, we have to cut out mistakes and complete. We have belief, it's just putting it into practice."
Gundagai will be without star centre Matthew Lyons for this week's clash, while Young centre Kye Tiedemann is sidelined with a calf injury.
The Tigers suffered their first loss of the season last week.
"I'm fairly confident we can do a job on them. But the important games for us are against Brothers, Temora and Junee who are all pushing for fifth. We need to beat them or we're not giving ourselves a chance for fifth spot," Bush said.
Meanwhile the Young Cherrypickers rugby league club is leading the Group Nine club championships.
The Cherryettes are aiming this week to continue their strong form and add a sixth straight win to their record.
First grade is set to begin at 2.35pm on Sunday following the lower grades.
Young Cherrypickers first grade:
- 1 Tom Bush, 2 Aborosio Navori, 3 Jake Veney, 4 Mia Tema, 5 Will Dunn, 6 Sam Langford, 7 Jesse Corcoran, 8 Aaron Slater, 9 Blake Hewitt, 10 Kyle Richens, 11 Jayke Hogan, 12 Warren Aiken 13 TBA. 14 Harry Nowlan, 15 Damien Slater, 16 Kelepi Komaisavou, 18 Casey Wall, 20 Saul Lealaitafea
Coach: Roy Jewitt
