Outside their women’s triumph there wasn’t much joy for Sunnybank in the 2018 Queensland Premier Rugby season, the Dragons finished with the top grade’s wooden spoon and only two other sides made finals appearances.

For a proud club that, in head coach Damon Virtue’s words, was “tough to take”.

But after a thorough review process leading into the club’s 50th anniversary season, he’s confident they’ve taken the first steps to a massive resurgence in 2019.

Overview with Damon Virtue

“To be honest 2018 was very disappointing, we’re a pretty proud club and results like that are tough to take so we’ve been pretty thorough in our review process and we’ve looked to make some adjustments to the program going into this season,” Sunnybank head coach Damon Virtue told Rugby News.

“There was a combination of things that impacted pretty heavily, all sorts of things. 

“Some of our game management probably wasn’t the best at times and when you’re struggling confidence does lack a little bit I guess.

“When that starts to happen you can try to dig your way out and we tried hard to do that, probably tried a little bit too hard at times and things just didn’t seem to work really.

“The boys have been working really hard in the pre-season and we’ve also made some cultural adjustments just to try and reinvigorate things as well, which has been taken on really well by the group.

“We’ve lost a few players but picked a few up and we were on top of the losses early, for example Rex Tapuai has obviously retired but he’s staying involved and will actually coach our colts.

“It’s a milestone year at the club too and we’ve highlighted that, we’ve had some old boys down and some former Reds players that are old boys in and around our coaching group as well, to try and spark us up a bit.

“Everyone’s really got in behind it across the club, across all the grades, and the feeling is really good around the club.

“We want to make 2019 as positive a year as we can.”

2018: Ninth.

Ins: Fala Tuala (Wellington, New Zealand), Hayden Sargeant (Bond Uni), Joel Brown (Bond Uni),  Dillon Wihongi (Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand).

Outs: Rex Tapuai (retired), Jake Strachan (Souths), Tuaina Tualima (GPS), Nathan Den Hoedt (NSW Waratahs), Charlie Tupu (Warringah).

Key areas of improvement: 

“Well, after that kind of result we’ve had to look everything really,” Virtue admitted.

“Like I said earlier game management is definitely a big one, things like playing in the right ends of the field and making good decisions.

“We’ve looked at our set-piece too and I think we need to be comfortable in holding onto the footy and building pressure and on the flip side of that, with our defence, we need to really enjoy defending for extended periods if we have to.”

Player(s) to watch:

“Tommy Lucas, he’s a big one, he’ll be our captain this season, he’ll steer the ship,” Virtue said.

“He leads through his actions rather than his words, he’s a super-confident kid and coming from that professional background through sevens his skill-set is pretty sharp.

“He’s been great with the boys so far this year, and that’s awesome.”

Hopes and expectations for the year:

“Get off the bottom, for sure,” Virtue laughed.

“You always have aspirations to be in the GF, the big dance, and everyone has that goal but I think the key is obviously being consistent.

“If you look at the sides that are really good across the board over recent years, like Jeeps and UQ, they’re good week-in, week-out.

“If we want to compete we need to be like those guys in that respect.”

Who will Sunnybank play in the grand final?

“It’s hard to go past Jeeps with their form at the moment,” Virtue said.

“UQ are always there or thereabouts too, they’re very well-coached as well so it’s hard to go past either of those two sides.”

Photo: QRU Media