PORT City Breakers coach Dan Kemp has kept the message pretty simple for his players throughout this season.
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And so far, it’s worked.
The Breakers head into Sunday’s home clash with the last-placed Forster Tuncurry Tigers no doubt with a mindset of a team heading to the finals.
It’s why the clash with the Tigers could be termed as a danger game because Port City are undefeated and Forster have already planned their end-of-season holiday.
“These games are the hardest games to win, the ones you should,” Kemp said.
“We had our lull about a month ago and now we’re creating a bit of momentum heading into the finals.”
An opportunity has presented itself for reserve grade utility Blake Nixon to make his first grade debut.
“He’s certainly deserving of his spot in the team – he’s been really good in reserve grade this year,” Kemp said.
“An opportunity presented itself and he certainly looks every bit the first grader. He fills that utility role that Adrian Daley has previously.”
Ben Stewart, Ricky Arnell and Luke Sinclair will watch this weekend’s match from the grandstand, but there is little doubt about their ability to be fit for the semi-finals.
“They all could play if it was a semi-final, but we thought we’d just make sure they were right for the first semi next week,” Kemp said.
Fullback Owen Blair has provided plenty of spark for Port City at the back and Kemp believes he is ready to explode in the finals series.
“Owen’s been really good for us and he anticipates things so well and sees a lot of things no one else does,” he said.
“He’s not the largest bloke in the world, but he’s come out the other side after being a bit quiet by his standards about four weeks or so ago.”
Despite Forster’s lowly position on the table, the Breakers coach was still wary of their ability with the ball in hand.
“I said it last time we played them, but I thought Forster should be going a bit better than they are,” he said.
“They’re still scoring points – they’re scoring 20 and 30 even though they’re not winning games so they still pose a threat, absolutely.”
The Breakers comfortably won the last encounter between the two sides on May 28 at Harry Elliott Oval to the tune of 48-8.
Kemp attempted to guard against complacency from his team, but admitted it wasn’t “ideal” to be playing last-place the week before the finals.
“It can be hard to stay up all year,” he said.
“There is still motivation there for us and we have expectations on what we want to do and what we want to achieve.
“We need to make sure we’re good to go next week.”
First grade kicks off at 3.15pm on Sunday at Regional Stadium.