Seemingly dead and buried after two hefty defeats a month ago, the Butchers have fought their way back into finals contention with strong wins over Corrimal and Berkeley in their past two outings.

After conceding 133 points to Dapto and Helensburgh in a horror fortnight, Costello has been pleased with his side’s renewed steel in defence but conceded it will likely face it’s biggest test against the Devils this week.

“The Dapto game, being Aaron [Beath’s] 300th was really disappointing and we were even worse against Helensburgh,” Costello said.

We trained really hard after those losses, mainly on our defence, and we’ve played pretty well the last couple of weeks. 

“Our first win against Corrimal we were much better. The first 25 minutes were pretty full on and we went end to end with them and defended our line pretty well. We conceded one try late but to hold them to 10 was really good. Against Berkeley we put together a really good second half, we defended well again, we jagged a few tries late and probably squandered three or four as well so we’re getting to where we need to be.

“Our attitude there has improved a lot but Wests will certainly challenge us in that area this week because they’ve got a lot of strike all over the park.”

Wins over the Cougars and Eagles has seen the Butchers draw level with Helensburgh on 12 competition points with a sizeable for and against disadvantage. 

It means they’ll likely need to win both of their remaining games against Wests and Collegians and hope Helensburgh drop one of their games to Berkeley this weekend or Corrimal in the final round.

“It’s pretty simple now we need to win both our games,” Costello said.

“Our senior guys like Beathy [Aaron Beath], Rusko [Joel Ruskin], Ty [McCarthy] and Johnno [Joel Johnson] have really been driving that this is it for us us now.

“They know what it’s about, they’re very loyal to the club and the club means a lot to them and we’re hoping that can drive our performance this weekend.”

While he’s confident his senior men are up to the task, Costello is also expecting the host of young players he’s blooded this year to lift with the sniff of finals berth.

“We’ve had at least 12 guys debut this year and sometimes three and and four in the one game so they’ve been great,” Costello said.

“It was one of those years for us where we knew that would happen and a lot of guys have got there opportunity. 

“They’ll definitely be better for it next year but to still be in finals contention at this stage is really pleasing.

“We’re still going to have six or seven guys who are 19 or younger in our side this week which has been the case all year so hopefully they rise to the occasion with the older boys and we give ourselves every chance.”