Defending premiers, Thirroul is aiming to be the first team in the club’s history to go back-to-back.
They also hope history repeats when they take on De La Salle in the Harrigan Premiership Preliminary Final on Saturday at Collegians Sporting Complex.
Like last year, when they defeated the team from the Shire 26-16 in the Prelim Final after finishing fourth in the regular season, the Butchers must make their way to the decider the hard way.
They came through the sudden-death elimination Semi-Final last week, defeating Collegians 32-18 after finishing third in the home and away rounds.
It is a scenario Thirroul coach Jarrod Costello knows all too well.
“We’ve been here before and looking forward to Saturday. It’s a great opportunity for us, but at the moment, that’s all it is,” Costello said.
“We’ve been pretty clear with each other that the only thing we’ve got so far is this opportunity on Saturday, but we’re looking forward to the game.
“We handled last weekend against Collies well, I thought, and we go again for another sudden death game this weekend.
“We’re used to playing in them. We’ve got guys in our side like Boyley (Jarrod Boyle), Tarj (Whitford), Brad Deitz, and Tyrell (Fuimaono), who are all experienced players who play in key positions for us.
“They’re used to playing those tight, sudden death games, so we’ll draw on the experience of those guys, no doubt, on Saturday.
“We’re aware it’s going to be tight, and the game will go late; it will go deep into the eighty minutes. There’s never too much between us.”
Read More >> Prelim Final Previews [All Grades]
Making The Most Of Opportunities
Aside from the 36-16 win to the Shire outfit in Round 10, only six points separated the two sides while sharing the honours in their last two encounters.
Reflecting on the 14-10 loss to the minor premiers when they last met three weeks ago, Costello has his charges focused on stiffening up their goal-line defence and ensuring they capitalise on key moments when they have the ball.
“We conceded a couple of barge over tries, and we had a couple of scoring opportunities ourselves to win the game, and we didn’t execute.
“For us, it’s around not conceding tries as best we can and making sure that when we get our opportunities, we take them.”
Defending The Title
On the challenge they set for themselves at the start of the year to go back-to-back, Costello says they haven’t strayed too far from last season’s winning formula.
“For us, to be honest, it’s been the same principles. We tried to build our season early in the year, get some wins, and finish high up the ladder.
“Now that it’s the Semi-Finals, it’s a whole new competition, as everyone always says.
“Obviously, we’ve drawn on the fact that we’re the premiers and defending a title. We talk about that often.
“It’s not just a normal Semi-Final Series for us. We are the defending premiers, and we want to defend that.”
Preliminary Finals, Saturday, 31 August, Collegians Sporting Complex
- Harrigan Premiership | De La Salle v Thirroul | 3pm.
- Harrigan Plate | Berkeley v Avondale Wombats | 1.15pm.
- Harrigan Shield | Figtree v Windang Sharks | 11.45pm.