One more finals hurdle remains for Goondiwindi
RUGBY LEAGUE: Tonight’s game against Wattles isn’t life or death for Goondiwindi, but it would make their lives a whole lot easier.
The Boars host the competition frontrunners at Gilbert Oval, with a win cementing their spot in the TRL Premiership finals against Dalby.
A loss however will have them turning black and red tomorrow, in the hopes of a Valleys win against Gatton.
Should the Hawks prevail, the Boars will be faced with a mid-week play-off to determine fifth spot.
It’s a situation that playercoach Mark Offerdahl is hoping to avoid, as they look to end Wattles seven-game winning streak.
“We don’t know what Valleys are going to do, if they’ll rest players or not, so we can’t take a mindset of leaving it to that,” Offerdahl said.
“There’s no better test to secure that final spot than playing the number one team. If we want to win the comp, we’re going to have to beat them.”
In the first round of fixtures, the Boars went close to ending Wattles dominance at Platz Oval.
Scores were tied at 18-all in the 78th minute, before two late tries to Braydon Wilson got the Warriors home.
Offerdahl said his team will take plenty of confidence from that outing, as well as their defensive intensity in the second half last week against Brothers.
“We played them before and got close to them. We’ve got a few little game plans and scenarios on how we want to attack the game,” he said.
“Defence has been a focus for us and is responsible for us having such a good for and against.
“Against Brothers we kept them scoreless in the second half, however it should’ve been like that in the first half.”
As well as knuckling down on defence, Offerdahl said his team would look to feed off the energy of an expected large home crowd at Gilbert Oval.
“We’ll look to come out firing, that’s what we always try to do,” he said.
“Our home crowd is why we’re in so many games. We play our best games on Saturday nights.”
The Boars were boosted by the presence of hulking winger Josh Keoller, who scored a hattrick against the Leprechauns.
Offerdahl said his return to the club mid-season from the Easts Tigers U20s has been a boost for the team.
“He’s a young local kid who had a crack at Easts U20s,” he said.
“He’s going to try and go back next year. But he’s a machine. Josh is a big guy and we could play him in the front row if we wanted to because of his versatility. Josh is still a bit raw but hopefully he has a big finish to the season.”