NRL State Championship: Final say from Tigers captain Ryley Jacks

RYLEY JACKS’ FINAL SAY

The build up

That week off after the Hostplus Cup grand final has been really good for us. We got to celebrate the win, have our awards night - which was really nice - and then everyone came in on Monday focused on the next job. It’s allowed us to celebrate and enjoy it and also look forward to the game today. Monday, I personally found it a bit difficult coming back to training, just because we’ve just won a grand final so it was a bit like, ‘what are we doing here?’. It was a bit surreal because it felt like the season is done. But by our second session on Thursday and captain’s run yesterday, it was business as usual. We just got straight back into where we left off leading into the Burleigh game. The week’s been similar to the grand final week that we had. The build up has definitely had that ‘our competition verse their competition’ type feel. We’ve definitely got more excited as the week goes on. The more we’ve spoken about it and the more we’ve heard from other people and what it means to them, how we’re representing the competition, we’re now very excited and we really want to win it for Queensland. We’ve looked back at previous results. (Coach Matt Church) brought up a few things like the history behind this game. A lot of our younger guys didn’t know these things, like we haven’t won it since 2015. It’s been a long time and we’ve just broken one drought so we want to keep the ball rolling and break another little drought here. For us, it’s about representing the Hostplus Cup and showing that we're on par with - if not better than - NSW Cup.

Underdog status

Being underdogs has definitely been a theme of our season and that’s fair enough. We haven’t won a competition in so long so that (grand final) was always going to be an underdog win. It’s been similar with this build up for this game. Nothing’s changed and we love it. That’s right where we want to be and it suits our team. We’re happy to be the underdog and not be the favourite. That drives us and motivates us, like it’s done all year. It’s a good thing we’re not favourites. We really like where it’s at. If you look at people in our team, that’s happened to them throughout their careers. They haven’t fit or got the recognition at certain clubs and that’s why they’ve all come here. Hopey (suspended hooker Tristan Hope) was one. I know he’s not playing, but he’s a prime example of that. You’ve got a lot of people in our team that should be in NRL squads, like Sol (Faataape), Max Lehmann. There’s so many players that have been that underdog and that suits our team coming in today. Throughout the whole year, it’s been the same thing.

Preparing for South Sydney

We’ve done a fair bit of video on them this week. It’s difficult because the Hostplus Cup, you’re aware of all the players so we’ve had to do a bit of research on them. We’ve watched a few games but at the end of the day it comes back to you and what we’re doing. We want to bring the same things we brought for our grand final with our energy and attitude. They do have so many good players, like Blake Taaffe and Shaq Mitchell up front, so you do have to prepare like you do for most teams. But it’s a different feeling because you don’t think about them all year and then eventually you’re upfront and you’re versing each other. It will be the same for them. They’ll do their video on us as well.

Queensland spirit

Hopefully we get some fans out there early today. It will be really hot so I understand if it’s not the biggest crowd to start with. But there’s the three Queensland teams and hopefully they all get on the back of us and then the Titans (in the NRLW) and Broncos (in NRL). I know some of my family drove down yesterday. It’s a great day, NRL grand final day. I think everyone is excited to be there and being able to play on the day is unreal. That’s why this game is a really good one because it gives both Queensland and NSW Cup teams a chance to play on grand final day.

What a win would mean for the Tigers

It’s awesome seeing the Tigers jersey at Accor Stadium. Who would have thought we would get to do captain’s run at New South Wales Centre of Excellence? Just seeing a Tigers outfit there, it’s a really good thing. I think it will mean a lot more to our CEO Brian Torpy and our board, seeing our jersey out on Accor Stadium for things like the (club’s NRL) bid. For us boys, it’s a reward of all the hard work we’ve done. We get to go out and play on national television. It’s really good for our younger players who want to get signed in the NRL as well. Now that you’re here, you definitely want to win it, to be crowned the national champions. It would mean a lot to cap off the year. We’ve done a lot to win the Hostplus Cup, which is massive, but now we want to end the season on the right note. We don’t want to lose this one and it would mean a lot. It would be a special one to cap off this season.