By PETER ROWE
Two teams go into battle tomorrow evening at Dorrien Gardens for the third consecutive year as the right to call themselves 2024 Premiers comes down to 80 minutes of rugby league football.
And the NRLWA Fuel to Go and Play Premiership between the Fremantle Roosters and the North Beach Sea Eagles is primed to be a cracker of game between two different styles of play.
In 2022 Fremantle won, Last year the Sea Eagles got up in a drama filled game that went to overtime. Can it be the same this year?
“It might be, but I’d prefer to win in 80 minutes,” North Beach coach Phil Douche mused this week as he prepared his new-look side for another big day.
Photo – Carmel Potter-Green
Douche has had the luxury of a week off to prepare, the benefit of that minor premiership, but he has been quietly preparing his side for the clash that will come about 5pm tomorrow evening.
“We have a very different side to last year,” he said. “Some new talent we’ve brought through, so we’ve prepared well, nothing heavy or too intense. At this stage of the year if they don’t know it now, they never will.”
The comment is not lost on Fremantle skipper Duane Butler, another veteran of Grand Finals.
“Yeah, everyone knows their jobs. We’ve trained this week, nothing intense, but tweaking here and there,” he said.
“We have a couple of youngsters who have never experienced a Grand Final, so it’s good to get around them. But they are well-grounded kids, so we have confidence in what they can do.”
The Roosters will leave their team line-up until possibly early Saturday with three players facing fitness tests.
Butler is one, with a calf issue, big centre Joe Pu’uhila another with a thigh strain and fullback Paora Kemp with a niggling hamstring.
All are expected to be fit for what Butler says will be a fast and physical game.
“Beach are a very well drilled team. They are big on defence and they work you really hard when they have the ball.
“In last year’s final they kept us scoreless in the second half I think, so that shows what sort of a game we are expecting.”
Butler is right in his assessment of the opposition, North Beach are a superbly structured team unit, a very tight-knit group, who work to systems that test defensive lines, stretching laterally and creating holes to send back rowers and centres through.
And Douche is similarly impressed with Fremantle.
“A strong and physically tough team with a solid defence that is tough to break down,” he said.
“Going forward if you give them space they will get a roll on and hurt you. And their kick game is something we have to watch.
“Of course Delane (player-coach Edwards) likes to inject himself into the line and his short kicking game is also a danger.
“Our job is to limit their set starts and keep them in their own half.”
Dorrien Gardens, being a soccer ground, has shorter in goal areas and that might prove an advantage to an attacking side or a disadvantage to a defending unit.
Fremantle during training this week shortened their in-goals to test their players both offensively and defensively.
“We marked out with cones and did some drills based on the shorter size,” Butler confirmed.
“It’s something we are aware of,” Douche said. “We now we have to ready for a short grubber kick, as they are very good at scoring from those plays.”
For Douche the week has been relaxed and fun. He stressed he wanted to make sure his players enjoyed it.
He’s even thought of pairing up senior players with the younger members of the squad to help keep them focused.
Photo – Carmel Potter-Green
“We had a dinner with everyone last night,” he said. “Even though we won the minor premiership, we know this will be a massive test.”
Fullback Korey Craig, who picked up the Players’ Player of the Year award at the Ken Allen Medal on Wednesday night, will be a threat, as will young halfback Darius Rogers, named in the NRLWA team of the year.
Shane Gillham returns, probably at lock and Bowman Stein will be a threat off the bench.
“It’s about who turns up on the day,” Douche added. “Who controls the first 20 minutes and who lasts the 80.”
Butler agreed. The Roosters will hold a team barbecue the night before the game before players go through their individual routines the morning of the match.
Butler will sauna, then an ice bath and an “avo smash and a banana smoothie’ before heading to the Gardens.
Edwards and a few others prefer a morning swim in the ocean.
Any thoughts of redemption after last year’s loss?
“Not really, “ Butler said. “Maybe at the beginning of the season, but it’s not the same as last year as we have new players. No, we’ve wiped the slate clean and moved on.”
At about 5pm tomorrow afternoon two teams, the best two over the course of the season, will walk from their respective dressing rooms down the tunnel and on to the field of play.
And once that siren sounds we will witness an intensity that only rugby league can deliver.
Let battle commence.
