PORT Macquarie product Paddy Coelho will hope history repeats for Wests in their Vawdon Cup grand final this weekend.
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For the second successive year the Magpies head into the final game of the season, no doubt keen to replicate their heart stopping 7-6 win over Penrith 12 months ago.
If their 2016 clashes are any indication there is the possibility this year’s rematch could even be better.
Both teams fought it out in round 11 with Penrith winning on the back of the leadership of Australian Men’s Open captain Nick Good who was also recently crowned the Boland Medal winner at the NSWTA Blues Dinner.
Coelho said he was expecting another tough match.
“Penrith finished first and we finished second and we both won our semi-finals last week in a drop-off which was exciting for the fans and the crowd,” he said.
“It’ll be another tough match as it always is against Penrith so hopefully we come out on top like we did last year.”
Coelho scored the matchwinner in extra time during last year’s decider and he knows history rarely repeats.
“I actually said to someone the other day I’d be happy to win without the drama this year,” he said.
“I’m happy to go out there and do my job and make sure at the end of the day we’re doing our job.”
He said the benefit of the Wests side was that they “didn’t have any star players”.
“For us it’s about doing our thing right and if the opportunity presents itself again I’ll be more than happy to score the winner like last year,” he said.
Saturday’s grand final provides another opportunity for Wests to tune up for the State Cup which will be held in Port Macquarie in December.
“It’s definitely a positive to take into the State Cup winning the Vawdon Cup like we did last year,” he said.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted in the State Cup, but I think we’ve learnt a lot from that and coming off a big Vawdon Cup season should help us heading into it.”
Coelho said the key to their success had been with a high-quality level of juniors coming through their system.
It meant positions in the team at the State Cup wouldn’t come easily.
“We’ve got a lot of juniors coming through and a lot of people vying for positions in State Cup so it should be a good year for us up in Port as well,” he said.
The match starts at 4pm on Saturday at the Tempe Velodrome.
