Pirates painfully aware of pitfalls

Last year they were rolled by Moree in the major semi-final and then Narrabri the following week.

The roles are slightly reversed this year, with this time the Bulls the side they need to beat to play the Blue Boars in the decider.

The form guide points to a close contest.

Each have won one encounter. The other finished in a draw, although neither side is using that as any gauge.

Pirates co-coach Andrew Verrell was succinct in his assessment.

“Quite simply, if we don’t tackle, we don’t win and if we don’t control possession and make good use of the ball when we have it we’ll lose,” Verrell said.

He said they had bounced back pretty well from   last week.

“It’s certainly different to how we felt last year when we lost at Moree and had to come back,” he said.

“I think you’ll see a different side. Hopefully the side that started the game.” 

Hopefully not the one that finished, with the Blue Boars all over them in the second half.

He is expecting the Bulls to take a leaf out of the Blue Boars’ book and attack them through the forwards.

“I think we’ll find Moree trying to do what Narrabri did in the second half.

“I think they’ll go down that path.

“They’ve got a pretty physical forward pack.” 

The Blue Boars would have had close to 70-80 per cent of the ball in the second half.

“If we can get parity of possession I think we can win,” Verrell said.

For that to happen though, their handling will have to be a lot better.

It was pretty ordinary, as was their defence.

They also have to play a bit smarter.

Bulls coach Damien Kelly said they can draw a little bit from their last win, but also remembers how they played the game before that.

“The first game we played pretty stupid and made some silly errors,” he said.

They had the win in their grasp only for Pirates centre Greg White to snatch a last-minute win.

One thing that has been good for them against Pirates is their set pieces, although they are expecting Pirates to be better there.

“We’re going to have to rely on our forwards a lot,” he said.

“When we’ve played well up front we usually win.”

That said, despite that and  what he saw the Blue Boars do last week, they won’t be looking to just keep it tucked in the forwards.

They want to run it, although are wary of exposing themselves to Pirates’ poachers.

They’ve got some guys who are good at the breakdown and can catch you out if you get isolated.

“We’ve got to hunt in pairs or threes or fours,” Kelly said.

“That’s a key against those guys – not getting isolated.”

He conceded they will need to lift from the minor semi-final two weeks ago.

“A lot of that was our own errors,” he said.

“We played a lot of football in our half.”

Their defence also wasn’t up to its usual standard, which it will need to be.

“Our tackle technique has to be better and our defensive structure,” Kelly said.