'All eyes on us': Souths Logan prepared for a gutsy Wynnum Manly

“Everyone is coming for us and we can’t hand it in easily,” Seu said ahead of this weekend’s semi-finals.

“We know it’s all eyes on us.

“Every game or every round we’ve known it’s going to be a battle. We knew the competition was picking up and we couldn’t be complacent or too confident.

“We had to stay humble. The team chat was don’t be complacent and stay in it until the last whistle every game.”

Souths Logan typified this attitude in their final regular round game of the season, when they solidified their unbeaten status with a last-minute 30-26 victory over the third-placed Mackay Cutters.

Centre Sera Koroi scored the match-winner with two minutes left on the clock and Seu said the win was “everything”.

“We thought that Cutters had it,” she said of the match.

“For it to just happen at the last minute… we just knew it was now or never, so it was everything to get that win and to finish undefeated, especially from how our season was last year.

“We didn’t win anything in the first few rounds last year. To pick ourselves up again this season and put our best foot forward, we know we deserve to be in the BMD.”

With Souths Logan’s awareness of the target on their back,  Wynnum Manly also have plenty of belief they can cause an upset at Davies Park on Sunday.

Harvey Norman Queensland Maroons forward Tallisha Harden said there was no doubt her side had a lot of respect for the Magpies and their achievements this year.

But after losing to Souths Logan by just two points in Round 2, Wynnum Manly know they can push the competition leaders right to the brink in the grand final qualifier.

“It’s going to be tough,” Harden said.

“Across the competition everyone can respect how Souths Logan have gone. It’s not easy to go 7-0 and be undefeated. They’ve done such an amazing job and they’re the frontrunners.

“But we’re really excited. For some girls it’s the first taste of semi-finals footy.

“There’s definitely a belief in the team that we can do this. Rewinding back to Round 2 when we played them, it was such a close game and the lead changed two or three times and it came down to the bounce of the ball.

“We took a lot of confidence from that match and the way we’ve been playing in the last few weeks. We’re confident in ourselves and our own ability but respect what Souths have done.”

Burleigh and Mackay will meet in the second grand final qualifier at 12.15pm.

Main image by Zain Mohammed/QRL