THEY are two clubs synonymous with finals football and Wests and Thirroul will add another chapter to one of the Illawarra League’s fiercest rivalries when they meet in Sunday’s minor semi-final.
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The Devils will head into to clash high on confidence after notching a victory over then league-leaders Collegians in their previous start.
A final round bye momentarily halted the Devils momentum but assistant coach Pete McLeod is confident his young side and carry it into the sudden-death matches.
“We’d had a pretty big campaign in the back-end where we’d played tough games week on week so it was good to have the week off,” McLeod said.
“We’d been close but not close enough against the top four sides so to get that win in the last round was really good for the guys.
“I think we’ve been really good in our last two games. We played against Thirroul out there, which is a hard one, and got a draw and then beat Collegians.
“We’re a young side but a lot of them have played in the under 20s and a lot of them played in last year’s grand final so they won’t out of their depth in finals, that’s for sure.”
The old foes fought out a compelling 16-all draw when they last met in round 12, while the Butchers ground out a narrow two-point victory at Parrish Park in round five.
It sees Sunday’s showdown balanced on a knife-edge and McLeod is expecting the match to be big step up on both previous encounters.
“I think both sides will be a lot better,” McLeod said.
“You’re always confident to win if you’re in the semi-finals but we’ve never, ever played an easy game against Thirroul, especially a semi-final.
“They’re a great side and we know how they lift at this time of year. They’re going to be there ready to go and we’re going to have to play really well to win.”
Thirroul will take some good form of their own into the match having racked up 116 points in their last two outings against Corrimal and Berkeley.
Sunday’s match will be also be a finals return for the Butchers after missing the cut last season, but coach Jarrod Costello insists his side a setting the bar much higher than just featuring in the post-season.
“It was on of our goals at the start of the year to qualify all three sides into the semis which we’ve achieved,” Costello said.
“That’s great, and everyone’s excited to be back here, but it’s really important we move on now and put a good performance against Wests to stay alive.
“We’ve hit a bit form the couple of weeks and scored some points but it’s pretty important we draw a line under that because it’s a completely different proposition this week against Wests.
“They’re a big powerful side and they’ve got a lot of strike out wide as well so we need to be really good.
“We need to be selective where we finish our sets and where we leave them with ball and not give them too much field position.
“We know if we do that and execute ourselves we’ll be right in it at the end.”