PORT Pirates appear to work in two-year cycles – win grand finals, make grand finals and then miss the finals.
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Pirates will return to the Mid North Coast Rugby Union finals series when they hit the road and clash with Coffs Snappers next Sunday.
It continues a remarkable two-year cycle for the club who haven’t appeared in the finals since 2015.
They appeared in back-to-back grand finals in 2014 and 2015 after they won the grand final in 2012 and 2013.
Coach Nigel Hurlston admitted it was a strong performance from his team this season after they had a significant player turnover in the off-season.
“We pretty much lost all our senior players,” Hurlston said.
“Caleb Scholes was the only player who remained and we had 12 different names on the team sheet from round one this year to round one last year.”
Hurlston admitted Pirates had been inconsistent, putting it mainly due to the young playing squad.
“I was confident we would get there (into the finals) eventually, but we’re one level up from where I thought we would be,” he said.
“We probably scraped into the finals a bit.”
Pirates will head into next week’s clash with Snappers with arguably their strongest side this season.
“I don’t think I’ve been able to pick the same side two weeks in a row,” Hurlston said.
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