Fresh off the bye, Pirates will be playing for their 28th straight win when they take on Narrabri at Dangar Park but Pirates coach Mat Kelly isn’t chasing winning streaks.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He’s just chasing wins.
If those wins are strung together, great, but Kelly takes no notice of the winning sequence.
“We haven’t even thought about it,” Kelly said when the unbeaten streak was brought up.
“We don’t mention it at all. If we don’t turn up there on Saturday, we know we can have our arses handed to us.
“We just concentrate on our own game.”
READ ALSO:
Pirates have scored five wins in 2018 at an average winning margin of 42.6 points.
And in an ominous sign for other clubs, while Kelly has been happy with the results this season, he said his side were “nowhere near where we want to be”.
“Everyone knows there’s a fair bit of improvement there,” he said.
“They’re really knuckling down at training. That’s been one of the good things [about the side].”
Pirates have freshened up with a bye week and some bonding sessions to go along with it.
Kelly said the week off had his troops motivated for the clash with Narrabri – not that they would be short of motivation anyway.
“We’ve had some massive battles with them [Narrabri] and we haven’t always come out on top,” Kelly said.
A loss that stands out for Kelly was back in 2016.
Pirates lost just two games that year. Only one was at home.
“A couple years ago we played them [Narrabri] at home and lost by one point.” Kelly said.
“We’ve always had fantastic games and it does tend to one of the good matchups.”
The Blue Boars have lost just the one game this year and Kelly was prepared for another ding-dong battle.
He said half-back Matthew Schwager would be a constant threat.
“No disrespect to any of the other halfbacks in the competition but none are at his level. He sets a real challenge to our boys,” Kelly said.
“He just adds another dimension to that side. [He is dangerous] in and around the ruck.”
Pirates will have a “few away this weekend” with five-eighth Andrew Moodie one of the outs.
“We’re lucky enough Sam Collins will be back for his first game for about a month. He’ll slot in at 10. He’s our Mr. Fix-It,” Kelly said.
Meanwhile, Gunnedah will look to turn around a last-start loss as they host Walcha.
Last week, a fast-starting Moree jumped to a 33-7 lead at half-time before winning by seven.
This week, Red Devils coach Jason Waerea said Gunnedah will have to shut down Walcha’s “pretty special” midfield down and deny them ball.
They’ll also have to do it with as many as five changes from last round.
Waerea said Nemo Navatu, Brad Swain, Jono Madden, Isaiah Raitala and Nick Lyons were some of the outs from last week’s game with Zac Newcombe, DJ Morrison and Nathan Tavaga amongst the ins.