No fear of Jets bogey: Woolf
COACH Kristian Woolf insists the Townsville Blackhawks will keep the focus on themselves this afternoon as they prepare to host bogey team the Ipswich Jets at Jack Manski Oval.
The unorthodox Jets are coming off the biggest win in the club’s history after they thumped Mackay 54- 0 last weekend and they’ve proved to be a thorn in Townsville’s side, winning six of their nine clashes including the 2015 grand final.
Ipswich prevailed 20- 18 over an ill- disciplined Blackhawks outfit earlier this season and Woolf said his side would concentrate on where they can improve more than what their opponents might bring this afternoon.
“We’ve just got to concentrate on being us and playing at our best,” Woolf said.
“They got us at the start of the year, but we made over 320 tackles and they made about half of that and a lot of that was through our own fault.
“We just weren’t at our best and we didn’t control the footy when we had it and we probably allowed them to spoil us a little bit.
“They’re always dangerous. They play a bit different and they’ve got some very class attacking players in particular, and obviously they’re going to come up confident.
“We just need to make sure that we focus on ourselves and we focus on being at our best.”
The Blackhawks have lost captain Andrew Niemoeller for at least a few weeks after he suffered an ankle injury in last weekend’s win over Sunshine Coast, while Jordan Drew ( neck) is also sidelined.
Levi Dodd will replace Drew against the Jets while Andrew Davey will take Niemoeller’s spot in the backrow as he makes his return from a shoulder injury.
Woolf said it was a timely boost to have a player of Davey’s calibre come in for their injured skipper.
“He’s a terrific player and a big part of our team as well. It’s great to be able to bring him back in even though we’re sad to see Andrew ( Niemoeller) out,” Woolf said.
The Blackhawks are locked in a three- way tussle for first place with Redcliffe and Burleigh, who will battle it out at Dolphin Oval today.
Townsville holds a two- point advantage over Redcliffe on for and against, but Woolf said they weren’t getting distracted by the minor premiership race at this stage.
“We want to make sure that we’re showing signs of improvement every week and signs of consistency. They’re the things that are going to help you the most at the end of the year,” he said.
Kick- off at Jack Manski Oval is at 5pm.