Veteran looms as key to final
THREE men will share the load for Souths of trying to cover for injured gun five-eighth Nathan Murphy in tomorrow’s Hutchinson Builders TRL Premiership preliminary final at Clive Berghofer Stadium.
Souths will take on Valleys minus Murphy, who is out for the season, so the likes of halfback Marc Potter and utility Cameron Wuersching will have to steer the Tigers attack.
Veteran playmaker Alec Young could also be drafted into the squad in the No.6 jersey as Souths coach Russell Bailey tries to find spark for his attack.
“There is a possibility that Alec Young will come into the team. Alec is a seasoned, experienced campaigner who knows how to get the job done,” Bailey said.
“Cameron has done a great job at hooker and in the halves.
“If Alec is unavailable, he’ll do the job, but if he is, all three of them will be in the team.”
Turn to page 66 for more news ahead of the TRL preliminary final
SOUTHS may have won the Madsen-Rasmussen Trophy final and finished minor premiers but Tigers coach Russell Bailey thinks Valleys is the team to beat in tomorrow’s TRL preliminary final at Clive Berghofer Stadium.
Earlier in the season may would have pencilled Souths in for a grand final berth but with the loss of star five-eighth Nathan Murphy to a knee injury and the run that Valleys is on, Bailey knows his team has a big task on its hands to just qualify for a second-straight decider.
Valleys had to beat Highfields in the final round to force a mid-week play-off, where they backed up and knocked off the Eagles again to claim fifth spot.
The Roosters then ran over the top of Pittsworth in the first week of the finals before beating Wattles last weekend to make it four sudden-death wins in just three weeks.
On the other hand, Souths are coming off a 34-24 loss to Gatton.
“Even though we’re minor premiers, they’re overwhelming favourites,” said Bailey, who funnily enough knows a thing or two about betting markets as he works as regional manager of Tattsbet.
“The finals are all about momentum and Valleys have got all of the momentum. “They’re favourites; we’re underdogs.” Heading into the finals, there were question marks over if Valleys could back up for a third game in seven days but after getting through that tough period, Roosters coach Dean Bosnich knows his team is on a roll.
“When you’re winning you get more confident each week,” he said. “We have to win to stay alive and luckily we have.
“I think a big mental thing too has been that getting through that not only made us more confident, but ... we’ll face someone coming off a loss while out spirits are up from wins.
“I think that plays a bit of a part in it too. We’ve got a bit of momentum coming into games because we’ve been winning.
“We’ve played elimination footy for four games straight now so we’re used to it.”