Pressure off Atherton against Brothers
ATHERTON coach Graham Clark Sr says his side will “enjoy the moment” when they take on Brothers Cairns in this weekend’s elimination final at Barlow Park.
The Roosters coach said all of the pressure would be on their opposition in Sunday’s fourth-versus-fifth clash.
“We don’t have the budget to really classify ourselves as one of the big sides in the comBROTHERS petition, but anything can happen,” he said.
“We’ve just got to go out there and control our own destiny.
“We’re on the bottom of the pile, so they’re all expected to win and we can just go out and have a bit of fun. The pressure’s on everyone above us. ”
Atherton and Brothers met four weeks ago, with the Roosters taking the spoils in a 26-16 win at Mungali Creek Diary Stadium.
Clark Sr said the Roosters were fortunate enough to be able to play all the top-five rivals over the last seven weeks of the competition.
“It’s been good and I’ve learned a lot about the other sides,” he said.
“We’ve been relatively short in each of those games so it’s about us controlling what we can control.”
He said the side would welcome back some of their more experienced players for this Sunday’s elimination final, after they were rested over the final two rounds of the season.
“Jermaine (Pedro) hasn’t played for two weeks, Ned (Blackman) didn’t play on the weekend, Kobe Martin’s still out injured, Matt Whybird’s away with the Pride and Graham (Clark Sr) sat out last week – so everybody should be fresh this weekend,” he said.
The elimination final will kick off at 4pm this Sunday, September 1, at Barlow Park.