Tigers’ cubs hunting history

GUN onballer Ollie BurrowsCheng hopes to be part of the first team to bring a premiership cup back to the Twin Ovals for the TSL Tigers by winning the Development League grand final at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.

To do that, the Tigers must tame a team from the State League’s most powerful club, North Launceston, but BurrowsCheng believes the young cubs can do it.

“It’s very exciting, the week everyone wants to be a part of, and everyone is just loving it at Tigerland,” Burrows-Cheng said.

“It would be massive to win the grand final.

“I’ve played at Kingborough pretty much my whole life, apart for some time on the Gold Coast.

“I’ve been at the Tigers since I was a junior and played in some finals.

“But to be the first team in the TSL competition to get our first premiership would be superspecial.

“It would be massive for me personally and for the group of boys I’m playing with as well.”

The Tigers were the first team into the grand final, and Burrows-Cheng said North Launceston would be a dangerous opponent.

“You always know what you are going to get from them — they are a hard, contested team that can move the ball really quickly and rip you open really easily if you don’t do some good defensive work,” he said.

“We’ve had a couple of onepoint games against them and a couple of blowouts, so we really need to bring our A-game.”

Burrows-Cheng was a reliable performer for the Tasmania Devils in their full-dime debut in the Victorian-based NAB League this season, as well as playing DLeague and seniors for the Tigers.

The Tigers’ D-League outfit is well balanced.

“We’ve got a well structured forward line with a couple of talls deep and good small crumbers, our midfield is working really well together and our backline has pretty much remained unchanged all year,” he said.

The D-League game starts at 9.40am, followed by the TSLW grand final between Launceston and Clarence at 12.30pm.

The main event between North Launceston and Lauderdale kicks off at 3pm.