WAVES Tigers coach Antonio Kaufusi admits they are a “bit banged up and bruised” after their 30-6 victory over East Magpies in the Bundaberg Broadcasters A Grade Premiership minor semi-final last week.
Buoyed by their semi-final win, Kaufusi also said that they will miss high-class fullback Cody Maughan due to work commitments in their Preliminary Final showdown with Past Brothers at Salter Oval at 3.30pm tomorrow.
Minor premiers Brothers will still be smarting from their 22-14 loss to West Panthers in the Major Semi-final, when they were on the receiving end of 12-1 penalty count against them.
Kaufusi said interchange front rower Flynn Purkis is out again with his hand injury, and quiet achieving five-eighth Brad Clarke also remains in doubt after missing the Minor Semi due to injury, but he is still confident after defeating the Brethren in two of their three clashes this year, 26-12 on June 10, and 24-16 on July 8, and being much below strength in their 34-12 loss to them on May 6.
Kaufusi was delighted with how they bounced back from their 24-14 defeat at the hands of the Panthers in the Qualifying Fina to pluck the Magpies when some of their youngest players really stepped up to the plate.
“Tom Morcom only played 12 minutes but scored a try and did really well, and Daniel Cavanagh, who is captain of our Shalom College Rugby League team, played the full game in the back row and also did a really good job - we also had guys out of position the whole game,” Kaufusi said.
“It was a tough game, but we had a recovery session at the pool on Tuesday, and a light session last night to nurse everyone through to ensure they right to go tomorrow.
“Although we’ve got a few out and a lot of the boys are still sore, we won’t use that as an excuse, and we are excited about the challenge ahead in this game – win, and we are in the grand final, lose and we are out.
“Brad Clarke got through training okay last night and we hope he’s right to play, but if he does not play, we’ve got a contingency plan – we will just run with what we’ve got – we’ve had that all year, people in and out, but we’ve got that next man up mentality, and that’s what has got us this far, and we are, and I’ve got faith we will do a good job.
“Brothers have had a few players back later in the year, and they have a few runs under their belts now, and we can’t give them too many opportunities because they have got too many good players out there who can hurt us, but we will focus on ourselves and play the best we can.”
Brothers coach Andrew Hamilton said teenage halfback Bryden Blair was their best last week.
“But we had a lot of good players – it was a tough game and a tough loss with the penalty count – we had some tough calls against us – to give another team 70 extra tackles but be in it at 18-14 until they scored in the last minute, so we defended well and worked really hard for that period, there was a lot of positives, and we have put that behind us and moved ahead,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said while flying winger Benaiah Kambanei will be missing with a rib injury, they will be bolstered by the return of Quentin Ellis, and they are fully focused on Waves, aiming for their fourth straight Grand Final appearance.
“I think they will fancy themselves against us – they have beaten us twice this year and they will be very confident, and they play with a well-executed game plan, and we will have to be good, control our sets and get good ball to our strike players in the right areas,” he said.
“We have got to beat them in the middle because they normally play well when they get to the edges, and we have to put pressure on Waves – they have not been to a grand final for a while (since losing to Brothers 32-28 in 2019) and the pressure will be on them, more than us.”
Brothers were also beaten in both the Reserve Grade and Under-18 Major Semi-finals as minor premiers, to Waves 28-26 and Hervey Bay Seagulls 22-18 respectively.
But they will get their second chances in the Preliminary Finals against West and South Burnett, who accounted for East 34-26 and West 38-18 respectively.
