ORANGE may have won all three regular-season games against Bathurst but the Bushrangers are happy with one win after they beat the Tigers by 17 points at Bloomfield on Saturday to secure a place in the Central West AFL grand final.

“I just said, they can have their three wins throughout the season, I’ll just take this one,” Bushrangers captain-coach Steve Withers said.

Bathurst pegged back a 10-point deficit early in the final quarter to eventually win 15.9 (99) to 12.10 (82) to see them qualify for their fifth-straight grand final.

The result ends what looked like being a promising season for the Tigers after they started the year with five-straight wins.

They finished the regular season second but then lost the major semi-final to Cowra before falling to Bathurst on Saturday to bow out of the race for the flag.

Tigers coach Craig Donaldson was dejected after the game.

“We deserved better than that,” he said.

“When we first started, one (goal) was to win all games at home and to play more than just one finals game.

“We played two so it’s obviously an overall improvement from last year but with the side we had for the first five rounds, we should have taken it all of the way.”

Captain Withers got things started for Bathurst, kicking the first goal of the game before speedy forward-flanker Nathan Belbin added another soon after.

Tigers captain Nic Freedman slotted two in the opening term but the Bushrangers added another two goals themselves to establish a slender four-point lead at quarter-time.

Orange took the lead immediately after play resumed with Freedman adding a third and they were able to consolidate their advantage with majors to ruckman Greg Coates and Travis Bertram.

But Bushrangers on-baller Leigh Kingwill hit back with two goals and another from Withers to see the 2007 runners-up reclaim the lead at half-time.