Brothers coach Ben McCormack says his players are licking their lips at the chance to finally end their long preseason and play for Hospital Cup points, ahead of their first clash of the season, at home to Sunnybank this Saturday.

Brothers had the bye in round one, with McCormack deciding to take the squad down to Canberra to play a trial matches against Tuggeranong Vikings and Gungahlin Eagles.  

“The boys are a bit wounded,” McCormack told Rugby News. 

“We went down to Canberra and ended up staying the night. There were some weary bodies coming home on the plane on Sunday.

“Cooper Cameron picked up a head knock and will be out for a few weeks or until he is symptom free.

“Leo McCarthy is another one. He plays back-row for us and he’s really solid. He got snipered – he did his calf running down the sideline. He’s going to be out for four to six weeks, which is really disappointing.” 

McCormack said his playing group were looking forward to kick starting their title defence this weekend against Sunnybank, who fell to Souths in round one, 37-22. 

“Our preseason has been really long compared to most years. The players are keen to put it behind us and play for points that we can win,” McCormack said. 

“In terms of preparing for Sunnybank, it’s hard, because they are a bit of an unknown. They are a tough outfit to do homework on.

“In the two games we played them last year, there was a change in personal for Sunnybank between the games, as well as a change in tactics.

“This early on in the season we will be concentrating on ourselves and improving the things we were poor at during preseason games. We won’t be looking at Sunnybank too much. It’s won’t serve us well this early on.” 

Brothers’ preseason also featured an Australian Club Championship fixture against Easts, with the Sydney side winning 28-26 in a thrilling contest. 

While McCormack rued the game as an opportunity lost to win silverware, he said it showed his side where it could improve. 

“We were really disappointed. You can’t let good teams get out to big leads like that. In the past we have done it and we were able to chase teams down, but you can’t do it with a side like Easts,” he said. 

“We had two great chances at the end to win the game but we didn’t execute them. It was a big chance lost to do something historic for the club. The boys aren’t happy about it, and neither am I. 

“We spoke about what happened, and how we can learn from it. We need to play the full 80 minutes. We have tweaked a few things in our warm up to hopefully change this habit. We can put big minutes in, but usually it’s not at the start of the game.”

With Brothers gunning for a third consecutive Hospital Cup premiership, McCormack said his playing group were buoyed by the chances of winning professional contracts, and it was providing extra motivation this season. 

“Hamish Muller just picked up a contract for a couple of weeks injury cover at the Reds, and Michael Wood was just away with an opportunity in Japan and Korea for six weeks, which provided a taste of professional rugby for him,” McCormack said. 

“These are the sort of opportunities which are on offer for our aspiring players if they play well. If they can achieve their goals, that shows me the club is on the right path. Hopefully many of our players can do it.”