It's not something he's keen to see every week, but Illawarra South Coast coach Peter Hooper feels a painful semi-final grind in sweltering conditions could prove the ideal lead-in to Saturday's Laurie Daley Cup grand final.
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A new-look Dragons will be looking to retain the Cup first won under Hooper last season after coming away with a 16-12 win over Northern Tigers at Collegians last Sunday.
It was in stark contrast to the competition's other semi-final, with Newcastle and Monaro combining for 64 points before the latter won out.
It sets up a grand final showdown on the Central Coast on Saturday, but Hooper feels his side will benefit from the hard path.
"We've run a hard program for the kids and they've responded really well, nothing's been too hard for them," Hooper said.
"They've really enjoyed the hard work, which is probably what put them in this position. Last week in really oppressive conditions, although we didn't play our best footy, we hung around well enough to give ourselves a chance at grand final day.
"It wasn't ideal, we probably completed 50 per cent [of sets] and they were at about 75. We had to defend a lot, and we missed some tackles, but we scrambled really well.
"We just made them make that extra pass that they wouldn't have had to, and we kept turning up, which was the most pleasing thing."
The Dragons were on the wrong end of a 40-16 touch-up in their last meeting with the Colts, their only loss of their campaign, but Hooper's confident his side can emerge from a hard graft with a victory.
"You don't want it to be like that every week, but coming into a grand final you're going to have to scramble and chase at some stage like we did last week," Hooper said.
"It's going to be uncomfortable and we seemed, pretty comfortable being uncomfortable last week, which was pleasing.
"We were poor last time we played them. They've got some exceptional talent, a big forward pack and a really clever hooker so, defensively, we'll need to be on in the middle third.
"We'll give our middles the assignment they need to do, and hopefully they can take it out."
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
