Before a general bye this weekend, all four Illawarra Steelers junior representative teams are currently sitting in the top eight after Round 6.
Here’s an overview of where we stand in Harold Matthews and SG Ball Cup as we approach the crucial final three rounds of the season.
Harold Matthews Cup (1st)
The Steelers’ Harold Matthews Cup team is currently at the top of the table as the only undefeated team left in the competition, boasting five wins out of five games and a bye.
The Central Coast Roosters and New Zealand Warriors are two points behind, each with four wins.
The Steelers began their campaign with a decisive 42-6 victory over the Melbourne Storm in Round 1.
After a bye in Round 2, they faced a challenging series of matches, winning by narrow margins: 26-24 against the Raiders, and three consecutive come-from-behind wins over the Warriors (22-16), the Magpies (16-12), and the Dragons (12-10).
Appear to be on track for a crucial top-two finish, but they will need to win at least two of their remaining games with the Roosters and Warriors breathing down their neck.
Next Up: (H) North Sydney Bears (9th), (A) Sydney Roosters (4th), (A) Balmain Tigers (12th)
What They Said: Harold Matthews Cup Coach Jamie Szczerbanik
On his team’s resilience in the first six rounds: The boys have shown a lot of resilience to be where they are on the table. If you look back at three out of the last four games, the teams that we’ve played have been playing their grand final. Round three for us was Canberra. They were 0 and 2. They had to win to keep their season alive, so against us was probably the best that they’d played.
The Warriors was second versus third so that there was a top four clash. Then we play Wests who were coming off back-to-back losses, playing their grand final to try to keep their season alive and play outstanding with a high completion rate in the second half. And then the Dragons off a win the week before against the Bulldogs. they need to keep winning to keep their finals chances alive too.
On their undefeated run: Our boys are just finding a way to win toward the back end of games but we did look a little bit tired in that round six game against the Dragons. That first month and a half has been massive for the boys to just keep turning up week in, week out.
On the next three rounds: They’ll enjoy the rest this week and then the last three games is just going to be around our performance rather than the result. If we put in a good performance every week, the result should look after itself.
On playing Finals footy: We’ll worry about the semis when the semis come. You look at the ladder from fourth down to ninth they’re all on eight points. Second and third are on 10 and we’re on 12. So it’s still so close I think 12 is your number that you have to be on to make the semis. If we don’t focus on the next three weeks, the semis mean nothing anyway. We’ll just worry about it week to week and when the semis come around, that’s when we’ll start looking at them.
SG Ball Cup (6th)
SG Ball currently sits in sixth place on the competition ladder, having won four games and lost two. Shaun Timmins’ team made a strong start to the season with victories over the Melbourne Storm and Manly.
However, they experienced an away loss to the Raiders before bouncing back with a close 28-26 win against the Warriors in New Zealand. In Round 5, the team faced a setback, suffering a 42-14 loss to the Western Suburbs Magpies in an uncharacteristic performance.
Fortunately, the U19s regrouped and got their season back on track with a decisive 32-6 victory over the St George Dragons in Round 6.
If all goes well, they should finish in the top eight, but they cannot afford to slip up against the lower-placed Bears or Panthers. The final round against the Tigers will likely determine their path to the Finals.
Next Up: (H) North Sydney Bears (14th), (H) Penrith Panthers (12th), (A) Balmain Tigers (4th).
What They Said: SG Ball Coach Shaun Timmins
On the season so far: We’ve put ourselves in a decent position. We had a win on the bell in New Zealand where we weren’t real good, and then the following week we were poor against Magpies and probably got a bit of a kickup the backside, I suppose, but we came out last week, had a few guys injured, a few blokes got a chance and sort of put in a better performance against St George, which is good.
On the next three rounds: We’ve put ourselves in a decent position leading into this weekend off and then a couple of home games coming up, which we will go after. If we can do well there, we can set ourselves up for a top four finish. If we can go after the first game against Norths and then we’ll worry about the Panthers, I think we can put ourselves in a good position to finish top four.
On finishing top four: That’s our goal for the year. So far, we’ve done alright, four from six, but there’s always room for improvement.
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