The Reserve Grade Yabbies are down to the business end of the season and will compete in the John Dent Cup semi-final this weekend.
Young will take on third-place Queanbeyan Whites on Sunday in what captain-coach Tom Wlils said is a make or break match for the Yabbies.
There’s only eight points difference between the Yabbies – who sit fourth – and the Whites, with the winner to advance onto the preliminary finals.
The winner this weekend will go on to play ladder leaders, either Tuggeranong or the Wests.
But for now the focus remains on the semi-final, and once again Wills is full of confidence his team can come away with the biccies.
“We’ve only played them once, we had to travel and we didn’t really have a team – we had to play one man short and they had a full bench, so it’ll be different this time around,” Wills said.
“We’ll be carrying a full bench of quality players so I’m quite confident we’ll win, you’ve got to be confident.
“We’ll win by two tries.”
Wills said the Yabbies will head into the match with the same game plan they’ve followed all season in using the forwards to the best of their ability, and spreading it out to the backs who will use their speed to pack on the points.
While it’s easy in theory, the boys in green have been deprived of the practical side of play due to the wet weather disrupting training sessions for over a month.
“We’ve only been on the ovals one night out of the past five to six weeks, and everyone’s still very up beat but it’s been hard not being able to practise moves,” Wills said.
“It’s hard training on asphalt, not a proper oval, but we had a good training session on Tuesday night – it was a hard hit out and everyone was really positive.”
Qualifying for the semi-finals makes the Reserve Grade Yabbies the only team outside Canberra to make the cut – something Wills didn’t see coming at the start of the season.
“At the start of the year you’re always a bit uncertain about a new competition, but we’ve been quite lucky in a lot of quality players making themselves available this year to get us there,” he said.
Only three wins away from taking out the John Dent Cup, Wills shares some words of wisdom with his teammates.
“Get a good nights sleep on Saturday, and stay off the beers,” he laughed.
“Everyone has their own rituals, everyone's pretty pumped up for it and don’t want to let the team down.
“They all realise what they're playing for, so I know everyone’s going to give it their all and we’ll keep sticking to our game plan.”
The match will be held at Viking Park, Tuggeranong at 10.30am on Sunday.
