WATTLES WARRIORS
LAST YEAR
15-1, grand finalists
INS AND OUTS
IN: Michael Marshall (Warwick)
OUT: Andrew Richardson (Wynnum Manly), Jackson Green (Roma), Mark Gordon (work commitments)
LIKELY TEAM
1. Michael Marshall 2. Braydon Wilson 3. Jake Hargreaves 4. Nick Van Der Poel
5. Blake Lollback 6. Travis Burns 7. Matt Duggan 8. Dale Perkins 9. Joe Morris 10. Mitch Duff 11. Nathan Gaulton 12. Ty Gardner 13. Ryan Duggan 14. Mitch Koina 15. Dylan Wilson 16. Michael Pearson 17. Jordan Henry
THE YEAR AHEAD
Wattles have a fire burning inside them after going so close to claiming the premiership last season.
They know they have unfinished business, something they want to complete this year.
“The fire is still there. Obviously we had the opportunity to win it, but it wasn’t to be,” player-coach Travis Burns said.
“Losing Matty (Duggan) over the last few weeks didn’t help, but we’ve been really training well and are confident of another good year.
“Any team that has Matt is going to be hard to beat.
“We want to start good, because that can set our season up.”
The Warriors come into the year with just the one trial under their belts, and Burns hopes they can overcome that.
“It’s probably not ideal having only the one trial,” he said.
“It can help build match combinations, but we’re lucky that we haven’t changed our side too much. Mick (Marshall) at the back will take a few weeks, and losing Jackson (Green) and Andy (Richardson) are losses, but if everyone can step up, we will have a good year.”
PLAYER TO WATCH
Joe Morris. “He’s been in the system for a while and playing at hooker gives him an opportunity to keep improving,” Burns said. “He gives good service from dummy half and has done his time in reserve grade. It might take him a while to get used to two dominant halves, but I have a feeling he will have a big year.”
VERDICT
You would expect any team that lost a Price-Webcke Medal winner to struggle in the ensuing year, but Wattles have the depth to recover from the loss of Jackson Green. Their team remains largely unchanged from last year, which took them to a regular season of 15 wins. They are one of the teams to beat.
SECOND