BATTLE OF THE BIG GUNS
YARRABAH’S dynamite backline has dominated the headlines but co-captain Dale Ambrym believes the Seahawks’ unheralded forward pack could be the difference in Saturday’s preliminary final against Brothers.
The Seahawks’ spring-heeled flyers have set the Cairns District Rugby League finals series alight with an exciting brand of eyes-up footy and devastating strikepower out wide.
It was on display as Yarrabah scored 90 points in two weeks to knock reigning back-to-back premiers MossmanPort Douglas Sharks out of the competition with a 46-30 major semifinal win last week, and in the side’s 44-36 minor semi-final win against Ivanhoe the week prior.
But the Seahawks will need to produce more than a bit of sparkle out wide to overcome the minor premiers, who will be smarting after a 39-18 loss to Innisfail last week, and punch their ticket to the CDRL grand final.
They will be up against a Brothers forward pack considered to be one of the best in the competition, led by heavy hitters Nick Harrold, Emmerson Whittel and Abiu Pearson.
But Ambrym expects the Seahawks’ engine room of Cyprian Mossman, Jack Webster and Hayden Golchert to have a big say in Saturday’s blockbuster at Barlow Park, as well as bench forward Brian Schrieber.
Schrieber copped a heavy knock in the process of scoring a try in last week’s win against the Sharks, but is expected to play against Brothers.
“He was running around at training (on Thursday night),” Ambrym said.
“We’ll need him there. He’s a bit of an enforcer coming off the bench for us.
“Being one of the young forwards, he’s stepped us his game a lot.”
Brothers players were clearly gutted at the heavy major semi-final loss to Innisfail, but coach Jordan Biondi-Odo said his troops had put the loss behind them as they seek to turn their incredible regular season record into the club’s first premiership since 2012.
The Brethren went 17-1 in the regular season, losing only to Innisfail, and will be out to make a statement against the high-flying Seahawks.
Biondi-Odo, who won the CDRL’s coach of the year award, said his team would be ready for the Seahawks.
“We looked at what we did wrong and everyone’s just owned it,” he said.
“We’ll definitely be better for it this week.
“Just the lack of the concentration, missing our opportunities at crucial times. The effort was definitely there.
“It might’ve been a bit disheartening, but we’re forgetting about that now and going in with our full focus on Yarrie, and we’re pretty confident this weekend. Our mindset is solely on Yarrie and not what happened last weekend.
“They’re playing good footy, they’ll be hard to beat, they got a bit of momentum, but we’re a good team too.
“They can score 30 points but they can also leak 36. You have to defend. We’ll get our opportunities; we just need to make sure we take them.”
Ambrym said Yarrabah would take plenty of confidence into the clash, after the two sides were separated by a last-minute Biondi-Odo field goal when they last met in August.
“I had a look back at that game too, I knew we could have beaten them, we just beat ourselves on the day,” he said.
“We’ll be a lot better this weekend and I know for a fact that we can beat them; they’re very mobile but we’ve got the speed there. If we just keep doing what we’ve been doing for the last few weeks, we’ll be fine.
“Brothers are a very structured team so we can sort of predict what they’re going to be doing, but knowing us, we’re very unpredictable, so we can come up with anything out of nothing.”
Ambrym, who was part of the Seahawks’ maiden premiership in 2017, said there were similarities between that successful campaign and this year.
“It feels like we have the same mentality,” he said.
“Some of the boys that were there back then – like myself, Charles (Murgha), Hezron (Murgha), Sam (Bann Jr) – we’ve just brought that same mentality, that same attitude.
“They’ve got that experience as well now, and just trying to show the young fellas who weren’t there what to do.
“Hopefully we can make it a repeat of the 2017 season.”