FROM hunter where they successfully pounced to claim the title from favourites Redcliffe last year to the hunted as the most consistent team of the 2013 season; the Easts Tigers will be the team to beat in this years FOGS Cup grand final.
As the most consistent of the teams in the competition, the Tigers claimed this years minor premiership and have defeated their grand final challengers, the unfancied Ipswich Jets four times along the way.
The Jets surprised everybody including themselves to make it through to the grand final showdown after putting on a dominant preliminary final performance against Norths Devils and this is why Tigers coach Scott Sipple is warning past results mean nothing on the day.
They are the form side at the moment, very big and strong and have been playing carefree football so I really dont consider ourselves favourites, Sipple said.
Playing a grand final in front of their home crowd; theyll have great support, but with Easts having all three grades in, Im sure well have a black and gold army cheering us on.
The past results mean nothing on the day so both sides have just as much chances of winning.
Jets coach Todd Brown is hoping this is true and told QRL TV after his sides upset preliminary final win that his side would be trying to replicate their game plan which saw them defeat Norths on Sunday.
We did start well; the last couple of weeks we (have started) well; against Redcliffe last week I think we were up something similar (at halftime) hopefully we can continue that next week, Brown said.
It was really good (to get that win) we talked all week about attitude; and we have lost to Norths four out of four times this year and it was probably the first time this year we have turned up with attitude and I think it went well.
Brown is also hoping to get the support of rugby league loving locals on the day who have not been able to cheer on a team in a grand final for a number of years.
Its good to see the first final for Ipswich for a few years and they havent won a final for 25 years hopefully we can have a crack next week, he said.
We will give 100 percent we wont leave anything behind and thats all you can ask for and hopefully we get a result.
For Sipple one of his biggest tasks will be to ensure there is no complacency in the team and to manage the shift in a mood of a team who last year had nothing to lose but this year may feel the weight of expectation.
To be honest, I havent really given it much thought and the feeling is much the same as last year were quietly confident of getting the result we want, he said.
