The Bull Sharks are bracing for a massive Sunday of preliminary finals at Easts, with both the Premier Men, Colts 1 and 2nd Grade chasing a place in their grand finals.
For the Premier Men, it’s all about meeting Easts head-on. The Tigers play a simple but highly effective style that thrives on pressure, and Bond will need to be aggressive and physical from the opening whistle. The return of Reds pair George Blake and Josh Canham is a timely boost as the Bull Sharks look to impose their own game and continue the winning habit that has carried them through finals so far.
Colts 1 are also in the fight of their season, taking on Wests in what shapes as another classic contest between two evenly matched sides. With the lineout and maul expected to be key weapons, Bond will look to dominate up front while tightening up their discipline and decision-making after last week’s loss to Easts.
And then there’s second grade, winless after five rounds they are now a win away from a grand final.
With the Premier Women already qualified to play off for a fourth straight premiership, the entire Bond University community will be cheering for three more wins to make it a Bull Sharks takeover at Ballymore next week.
Premier Men
Bull Sharks v Easts at Easts on Sunday
The opposition
They play a very simple, uncomplicated game Easts, but they are very effective at piling pressure onto their opponents.
The focus
We have to be aggressive and physical from the outset.
The challenge
We must get our game going. The challenge will be facing up to them physically and then settling in as quickly as possible to playing the game the way we want to play it. And Easts will be trying to make that hard for us.
Shuffling the magnets
We get George Blake and Josh Canham back from the Reds which will be important. You want your best side available in big finals.
The final word
Winning has become a habit. And that should mean that the attitude we took into those games, and the physicality that we needed to win those games, is now also habit. That’s what we need. We have beaten Wests, the side that I thought were the premiership favourites, and that gives us some confidence, but we are under no illusion that we are facing another very good football side, and we will have to be at our very best to beat them.
With Mick Heenan
Colts 1
Bull Sharks v Wests at Easts on Sunday
The opposition
They are always a tough opponent. They beat us in round one by a couple of points and then we beat them 19-7 at home. They are a strong, well coached and hard working team.
The focus
I believe we can roll them up front through our lineout and maul. So, we will look to take them on with our set piece and then use our kicking game when it is needed.
The challenge
I would like to see us hold onto the ball a bit more and put pressure on the opposition. There were a couple of occasions last weekend where we did some aimless kicks. When there is pressure on guys go back to the default position which is to do their own thing. Usually, we kick for territory and on the weekend we were trying small kicks to ourselves which doesn’t put us in the position we want to be in to build pressure.
Shuffling the magnets
Rocco Gollings will come back into our side which will be very good for us. There may also be some other changes in the forward pack.
The final word
We let ourselves down last week in a couple of areas. The edge we needed for a final wasn’t there. So this week I want to see us ripping in. And as Easts put pressure on us, we started to make mistakes and drift away from the elements of our game that got us into the finals. That was a lack of maturity that we will hopefully learn from.
With Rico Gear