Greater Northern under-18 coach Peter Stevens has said there is “no love lost” between his side and Newcastle, but for the Tigers to make the Laurie Daley Cup finals they need the Knights to beat North Coast at Foster on Friday.
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In the final round of the competition, the Tigers did what they needed to do to give themselves a chance of advancing: beat Northern Rivers in Grafton on Saturday, which they did 22-18 after trailling 18-10 at halftime.
They now face a nervous wait after the Newcastle-North Coast clash was washed out and rescheduled for Friday.
Stevens called on Newcastle to “do us a favour”.
“It’s out of our hands,” he said. “We won yesterday [Saturday] but it wasn’t pretty.”
The Tigers’ under-16 side lost 18-16 in their clash against Northern Rivers in the earlier game in Grafton on Saturday and have missed the finals, which would not have happened had they won.
Stevens praised his side’s defensive effort, especially in the match’s final stages under heavy Northern Rivers offensive pressure.
He said the Tigers aimed to blunt Northern Rivers’ attack.
"At halftime we said, ‘That’s it’. And that’s [18 points] is what they finished on. Our second-half defence was outstanding,” he said.
