Minor premiers crave success Brothers in fine fettle

THEY’VE already had a taste of success this season and now Brothers are determined to make it a North Queensland Premier League clean sweep.

The minor premiers will take on powerhouse MA Olympic in tonight’s major semi- final at Brolga Park, with a direct path to the grand final up for grabs.

Brothers broke a seven- year drought when they claimed this season’s minor premiership after also taking out the NQ Cup final against Saints Eagles South last month.

Teams had a general bye last weekend before the finals and Brothers coach Paul Daly said his side was looking refreshed and ready to claim their final piece of silverware.

“It’s been seven years so it was long time between drinks, but we certainly haven’t switched off,” Daly said.

“They’ve got that taste for success now. We’ve still got to work hard so we can make a good year into a great year by getting that last trophy.

“We had quite a few niggles and I presume Olympic would be the same so the week off has done the players a world of good.

“They’ve played a lot of football this year so it was nice to get away from football for a weekend.

“We’ve had two good sessions this week and they’re in a good frame of mind.

“You need to turn up ready to go and the boys are very keen to finish it off. Time will tell if we’re good enough to go straight through.”

Brothers and MA Olympic have played some thrilling battles this season, with the ledger squared at two wins each.

Olympic have experience on their side having made the past two grand finals and Daly expected both teams to leave it all on the field when they face off tonight.

“Olympic are a good side and we like playing them. It’s always a good game of football and the best team on the day usually decides it,” he said.

“They’ve beaten us twice and we’ve beaten them twice and we beat them in NQ Cup. If you’re just an average punter watching the game then it’s pretty hard to decide who’s going to come up trumps.

“Both teams play a good style of football. At the end of the day, it’ll be decided by the team that wants it more and has more desire to put the ball in the back in of the net.”

Meanwhile, Rebels will look to keep their championship defence alive when they play Warriors in the minor semi- final.

Both matches kick off 8pm tonight at Brolga Park. at