Chris McKenna says his Iona College team has shelved any thoughts of a showdown with Marist College Ashgrove until the final round of the AIC’s historic first rugby league competition.
Iona and Marist Ashgrove are the only undefeated teams after four rounds, leaving them on track to decide the inaugural title when they meet in the final round in two weeks.
But McKenna, the former State of Origin centre, says his players will focus on tomorrow’s clash with a dangerous St Laurence’s College before next week’s match against a resilient St Edmund’s College.
Marist Ashgrove meets host team Villanova College in tomorrow’s fifth round before they face a daunting away clash with Padua College at their Banyo playing fields next week.
Iona College kept its unbeaten record intact at home last Saturday when senior school rugby league returned to Davine Oval for the first time.
Iona defeated St Patrick’s 30-6 to add to an entertaining opening-round win over Padua and a solid win over Villanova. Iona overcame a St Patrick’s team that lost its representative fullback William Boland early in last week’s game.
“We played well last week but we know that St Patrick’s was without that player for most of the game,” McKenna said.
“They really took the game to us despite that so full credit to them but I was proud of the way that our guys stuck to their plan and continued to play.
“St Laurence’s will be a tough game tomorrow because we know that they have talented players in their team and the nature of schoolboy footy means that you can’t look too far ahead.
“We’ve spoken about that as a team because we want to control what’s in our backyard first and foremost and that’s this game against St Laurence’s.”
St Laurence’s have showed excellent patches this season, taking St Patrick’s to the final minutes of their opening clash before registering a win over St Edmund’s College.
Marist Ashgrove has been strong this season and their win over St Edmund’s last weekend added to wins against St Patrick’s and St Laurence’s.
Padua loom as a danger team for the frontrunners, backed up by their outstanding effort to reach the semi-finals of the Confraternity Carnival in Bundaberg in July.
They remain hopeful of featuring in the inaugural premiership calculations and must confront St Patrick’s tomorrow in a game between the north Brisbane schools.
