Illawarra Cutters Head Coach Jason Demetriou admits the team are rested and raring to go heading into their upcoming Preliminary Final fixture.
The Cutters were afforded a seven-day respite following their 32-22 win over Wests Tigers in their Qualifying Final fixture at UOW Jubilee Oval, Kogarah on Saturday.
The Cutters face the winner of the Newtown Jets v New Zealand Warriors contest and will welcome back trio Kurt Mann, Taane Milne and Jacob into the fold for the game.
“We will be welcoming back a few players ahead of the Preliminary Final including Jacob Host, Kurt Mann and Taane Milne who have both been playing first-grade in recent rounds for the St George Illawarra Dragons,” said Demetriou.
“It’s really exciting that those three players want to come back and give back to the boys here and that’s a credit to the culture in and around the squad.
“Our performance against the Tigers was a bit inconsistent but it’s all about getting the result come the final whistle.
“There are no prizes though about how you get the win so long as you get the win so I’m happy we were afforded the week off.
“We dropped our levels a bit thinking it was going to be a bit easy with the score but we were playing in Finals conditions and the Tigers got some momentum back and came at us.
“I wanted to make sure we maintained our levels but we did drop again in the final ten minutes in my mind.
“We need to be more consistent over the eighty minutes but I think the boys lifted whenever there was danger but it’s now about keeping that foot on the throttle.
"The win over the Tigers allows us to freshen up ahead of a very important bloc of football."
