OBERON Tigers captain-coach Luke Branighan may have signed for St Pat’s in 2019, but club president Ian Christie-Johnston says the prized five-eighth still has a job to do with his current club in 2018.
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Branighan was announced as the new St Pat’s captain-coach last Friday.
“It is a distraction and a bit upsetting that St Pat’s wanted to release the news at this time, but that’s a part of inter-club rivalries, isn’t it?” Christie-Johnston said.
“He’s served a yet-to-be-finished two-year tenure and he’s still got it in his goals, in part of the club’s goals, to continue through to the grand final again.”
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If the Tigers want to qualify for this year’s Group 10 premier league grand final, they’ll have to do it the hard way from fifth position.
The last team to come from fifth to win the grand final was the Mudgee Dragons in 2016. The Dragons won all four of their finals, away from home, to lift the premiership trophy.
Christie-Johnston said the Tigers boys are capable of a similar premiership assault in 2018.
“The boys have certainly go it within them to do it. The week off did allow them to freshen up and get rid of a few niggling injuries they were carrying,” he said.
“Injury-free, they’ve certainty got the ability to go all the way. Depth will be the issue. If we lose players through injuries, it’ll be a hard way to go about it.”
Christie-Johnston said this weekend’s elimination final against Bathurst Panthers should make for a tough game.
“We played Panthers a few weeks back and it was one of the better contests of the year,” he said.
“It was a very physical game. They’ve got a big pack of forwards and we’ve got a big pack of forwards, so it’ll be interesting to see how they go against each other this time.”
Oberon will play Panthers at Carrington Park, in Bathurst, on Saturday at 6.15pm.