After beating Wests to win last year’s Hospital Cup grand final, Brothers added more silverware to the Crosby Park trophy cabinet when they beat Randwick to claim the Australian Club Championship in March.

Ben McCormack has taken over from Brendan Gabbett as head coach and is looking to get even more out of the defending premiers this season.

Overview with Ben McCormack: 

“I’m really excited to be back coaching at Brothers. Obviously they had a great year last year and we’ll look to build on that,” McCormack told Rugby News. 

“There was a fairly large celebration period after last year’s premiership and a fairly long hangover off the back of that. 

“We didn’t do a lot pre-Christmas to be honest. A lot of the boys took time off and went overseas, a lot went over to the World Cup and some did other things. 

“But that was okay. There’s no point trying to flog a dead horse and since they’ve been back, everyone has been working really hard. 

“I was pleased with the Australian Club Championship result but I can’t say I was overly pleased with the performance. We were fairly rusty and the game was pretty scrappy. 

“Someone has to win games like that and fortunately in this case it was us. I was happy with our attitude towards contact, we were aggressive and kept banging into them and going again. 

“I was happy with the result but the performance needs a fair bit of polish if we’re going to do anything at the backend of this season. We’ve got time to fix that though. 

“Brothers have had a winning culture for a long time and this adds to it, which is great. The boys know how to find ways to win and that was evident in our trial against Jeeps last week. We were very underwhelming but eventually we found a way to get on top. 

“They are good habits and traits to have, we’ve just got to put more effort into the detail and get it right for later in the year.”

2024: Premiers (beat Wests 26-24 in the grand final). 

Ins: Oahu Davey-Phillips (NZ), Grason Makara (Force), George Tuineau (NZ), Hamish Glascock (Eastwood), Quinten Raravula (UQ).

Outs: Michael Bond (retirement), Tom Moloney (retirement), Rob Mapa (Storm), Hunter Lim (Japan), Toshi Butlin (France), Kadin Pritchard (Brumbies), Josh Mongard (Norths).

What style of rugby will we see from Brothers this season? 

“We want to express ourselves and enjoy the style of rugby we play,” McCormack said. 

“We want to use the ball in attack and be intelligent and adaptable based on the defensive pictures we see. 

“We also want to attack without the ball and find opportunities to recapture the ball while we’re defending. 

“That could be through breakdown pressure, pass pressure, line speed, whatever that looks like, we’ll be getting after it more in defence this year.”

Player(s) to watch: 

‘We’ve got more than a couple of guys I think have potential to go further,” the coach said.

“Although he’s already contracted, I’m really excited to see what Timmy Ryan does this year. He’s just a really good footballer and he’s only 21. 

“Jaiden Christian is a pretty unique player. He spent a bit of last year with the Melbourne Rebels but hasn’t signed anything for this year.

There aren’t many 6’1-6’2, 145kg props with his ability not playing professional rugby and I can’t see him being with us for too long. 

“Hopefully someone in Australian rugby finds a spot for him because it would be a shame to lose a guy that size overseas. 

“He’s been training really well. He’s fitter then he’s ever been, he’s great at scrum time and he’s got good skills. I think he’ll do some real damage early this season but I’m not banking on having him all year because I just think someone will pick him up. 

“We’ve also got Dre Pakeho as an inside centre option. He’s still a colt but he’s a proper footballer, he’ll play plenty of grade this year.”

Which two teams will play in this year’s grand final and why? 

“I think it’ll be Brothers and Wests again. They’ve had a few good battles in recent years and I think that will continue,” McCormack told Rugby News. 

“I got a bit of a look at them a few weeks ago when they played Tuggeranong and although they’ve had a bit of player turnover, they looked really strong. 

“They blew Tuggeranong out of the water in the first half and they had quite a few impressive individuals. 

“They were big, strong and fast and they’ve got experience with guys like Henry Speight running around out wide.”