It has been 27 years since the Gunnedah Bulldogs tasted Group 4 rugby league premiership glory, but a chance beckons to break the drought this Sunday as Gunnedah faces the Moree Boars at Boughton Oval in this year’s decider.
The home side meanwhile is chasing back-to-back premierships, having won last year’s grand final 40-18 against Boggabri at the same venue as this year’s decider.
“There’s a premiership there to be won; everyone wants to win a premiership,” Bulldogs coach Sean Hayne said.
“It’s just up to the 20 guys in the squad (and) the coaching staff, to give everything this week and turn up ready to go in the grand final.”
Since 1998 the Bulldogs have appeared in two grand finals, with a 56-18 loss in 2014 and a 34-28 loss in 2018 during North Tamworth’s run of eight straight premierships.
Sean Hayne coached the Bulldogs in 2018, while this year’s grand final side is set to include a small contingent of players from that year’s decider as well as some other players who have been in grand finals with other teams.
“We’ve got enough experience in our team to soak in the week and turn up with the right attitude,” the coach said.
“(With) every game there’s a mental aspect.
“It’s just how strong mentally people are, whether they play through injury, fatigue or whatever.
“The guys will be ready to go, so there won’t be any excuses.”
Hayne said he had to prepare the players and make sure they were “in the right headspace come game time, and they haven’t wasted too much energy”.
Hayne said there was no point playing the game in one’s head in the lead-up to grand final day, nor being prepared too early in the week which was “just a waste of nervous energy”.
“Just make sure we’re ready to go on game day,” he said.
The Bulldogs beat the Boars 28-14 on Gunnedah soil back in round two before the defending premiers won the next two encounters 30-4 and 30-26 at home, with the most recent match ensuring Moree would host the decider instead of Gunnedah.
Hayne said the Boars were a pretty well-drilled team while the Bulldogs needed to make sure they had good line speed and controlled the ruck, to give themselves a chance of winning.
“We’ll just go over what we need to do (this week); what our game plan’s going to be for the week, and have a plan B and plan C if things don’t work out with the original plan, or if changes have to be made to players at any stage during the game, just to make sure we cover all our bases and give ourselves the best opportunity to be successful,” he said.
Although the Boars have won two of the three encounters with the Bulldogs this year, Hayne stressed that there was no bogey side for Gunnedah.
“It’s just a matter of who turns up and puts their A game on…will probably come away with the premiership,” he said.
Likely Gunnedah team: Dylan Lake, Jared Heinrich, Sunia Naruma, Max Turner, Mckye Tucknott, Ezra Gibson, Marcus Hayne, Lincon Smith, Callum Hayne, Trent Hilton, Aidan Davis, Wil Patterson, Nick White. Interchange: Hawken Durrant, Netava Naruma, Thomas Randall, KC Edmonds. Coach Sean Hayne.
Possible Moree team: Steven McIntosh, Jake Tighe, Alex Barker, Kaedyn Smith, Adrian Smith, Jamie Simpson, Michael Watton, Unknown, Cameron Rodgers, Daniel Howe, Brent McDonald, Sam Sadler, Alex Lawrence. Interchange: Joseph Wade, Unknown, Jack Durheim, Daniel Jobson. Coach: Jamie Simpson.
