POSSESSION and controlling the tempo of the game will be the keys to the Albury Wodonga Steamers going back-to-back, according to coach Mick Raynes.
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The defending premiers go into today’s grand final as underdogs to a Griffith team on an eight-match winning streak.
Its last defeat was to the Steamers at Murrayfield in mid-June.
Raynes said the Blue and Golds needed to play their game and not get sucked into the Blacks’ lack of structure.
“Griffith plays at a frenetic pace and throws the ball around at every opportunity,” he said.
“We can’t let that happen, but most importantly we can’t get sucked into playing at their tempo.
“We will need to maintain possession, starve them of the ball, do the things we do well and build pressure.
“The guys out there will need to take their cues from Nathan Bright and Richard Manion — the players will need to be tuned into their calls.”
But Raynes believed his squad’s self-belief would drive them to a second premiership.
“During the year we have been consistently telling these guys that they had the ability to go all the way — that the coaching staff believed they were good enough to win the premiership,” he said.
“Until recently I don’t think they believed that themselves.
“But the mood at training this week is this is our destiny, there’s a belief we can do this.
“We expect to play our best rugby of the season and if Griffith are going to beat us they are going have to play one great game.”
Raynes said halfback Hugh Erwin was just one of the reasons the Steamers would win.
“Hugh has been around the club for some time, been in and out of first grade, a third pick halfback,” he said.
“But this year when it was almost as if there was a curse on anyone pulling on the No. 9 jumper, Hugh stepped up.
“He has provided the link between the forwards and backs, he leads by example and has become some sort of talisman for the playing group.”
Raynes said the Steamers wouldn’t panic, regardless of what happened in the first 20 minutes.
“If we are behind, which is something we have become accustomed to this year, we will work back into the contest,” he said.
“As we showed last week we are more than capable of scoring length of the field tries — that requires speed and skill, it doesn’t happen randomly.
“We can be just as damaging on the counter attack as Griffith.”