After dropping two matches and drawing another in the final rounds of this year’s regular season, Brothers conceded two early tries in Saturday’s major semi final against Wests at GPS.

It was enough to get even the most optimistic Brothers’ fan breathing heavily, but like usual coach Ben McCormack didn’t seem too phased.

“Never in doubt mate,” McCormack laughed.

“We knew there was no way we were going to be able to contain some of their big outside backs for 80 minutes, so we were prepared for them to have an impact at some point of the match.

“Our key focus was to control their source of possession, compete hard at set piece and play good field position.

“They took off pretty quickly and got a few tries ahead but I was always confident that once we settled into our work and got our share of possession, that we’d be able to fight our way into the match.”