Birthday on backburner as brothers prepare for their biggest tests
PALM Beach Currumbin flyhalf Ethan Lolesio will delay his 24th birthday party 24 hours in the hope of adding two major celebrations to the agenda.
At 3.30pm on Saturday he will steer the ship for the Alleygators as they head to Heeb St to hand Griffith Uni Colleges Knights their first defeat since the 2019 grand final.
At fulltime the Lolesio clan will race to Suncorp Stadium to watch younger brother Noah, 21, start at flyhalf for the Wallabies in a series decider against the French.
Two wins will give the entire family something to party about on Saturday night.
“We’ll be going to bed early tonight,” Ethan Lolesio promised on Friday evening.
“We’ve got the momentum we need (to beat Colleges) at the moment and all the boys are excited to play.
“We’ve got everyone back, we’re a full strength side.”
Colleges are the most disciplined and structured team in the competition while PBC’s breathless attack has swept aside all challengers in the past six weeks.
The teams met 25 years ago in the 1996 grand final and on current form could meet in the decider again.
“It’s a real clash of styles between us,” Lolesio agreed.
“At the start we’ll be more conservative then later on we’ll try some stuff.
“We’ll pretty much freestyle it.”
There was plenty of advice exchanged at a family catch-up on Friday afternoon but not in the direction you’d expect.
If the Wallabies flyhalf had any wisdom for his club footy battler of an older brother, he wasn’t listening – too busy providing Noah some advice of his own.
“100 per cent I’ll be giving him some advice: Just play your game, have confidence and keep it simple.” Noah Lolesio could only laugh. “Ethan and I are super tight,” the four-Test flyhalf said.
“He loves to keep me down to earth. He’s probably even more naturally gifted than I am so I don’t think he’ll need any advice from me.”
GCDRU: Coomera v Eagles; Surfers v Bond; Nerang v Helensvale.