GUYRA will make its final roll of the dice for the finals today but even a win over Armidale might not be enough for the Ghosts to squeeze into the four.
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Thanks to Barbarians’ late surge, they need to not only beat the minor premiers but also need Robb to roll Barbarians in the other game.
Ghosts coach Don Carruthers is optimistic they can do their part.
“I know we can beat them if we play as a team and not individuals,” Carruthers said.
That has been one of their issues in recent weeks.
“We need to play sensible football and smart football instead of individual football,” he said.
“They’ve got three key players – Mike (TeMoana), Dan Ahsee and John Roberts.
“We need to contain those three and not kick stupid high balls to Roberts.”
As for TeMoana, they can’t afford to give him any breathing space.
“We need to do what Baa Baas did to Mike,” Carruthers said.
“Get three blokes on him and knock him over.”
Blues coach Alan Jones is expecting the Ghosts to bring a similar intensity to what Baa Baas did a couple of weeks ago.
They were playing for their season and played accordingly.
Jones said the loss was a wake-up call for them.
They went straight into a bye, which normally wouldn’t be ideal, but has given them the chance to reassess things and focus on the finals.
“We were in a situation where even though we weren’t playing great footy we were still winning games,” Jones said.
That probably led to a bit of a complacent mindset, thinking it was just going to happen.
They can’t afford to have that mindset over the coming weeks.
They have to treat every game like a final.
“You just can’t drop your guard,” he said.
“You can’t just turn up and think it’ll be okay like it has been other games.”
There is a lot from that last game Jones would like to see improve tomorrow.
The set pieces for one.
“And just in that red zone around the tryline when we’re attacking,” he said.
“We need to be smarter with our options and be a lot more patient.”
Work the phases rather than trying to score off the first or second phase.
He expects the Ghosts to try to take the challenge to them in the forwards.
“They’ve got a pretty decent backline.
“If the forwards give them a platform they’ll keep coming at us.”