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.”

Brothers trailed 19-14 at the break and McCormack said his side didn’t really hit their straps until early in the second half. 

With scores locked at 26-all, a maul try with 15 minutes remaining proved decisive in the 7-point win. 

“It’s nice to have confidence in your set piece and our boys have worked really hard on both our scrum and our line out all year so when we get the opportunity, it’s nice to be confident that you can turn to your set piece and likely get a positive outcome,” the coach said. 

“When we got those penalties towards the end, you saw James (O’Connor) didn’t have to think too hard about it, he had full confidence in our pack and they repaid that confidence.”

McCormack was full of praise for returning flyhalf and captain James O’Connor who steered the ship for the defending premiers after an injury riddled season. 

“Wests had a lot of experience in their outside backs with Suli (Vunivalu) and Henry Speight and they had youth, really high quality youth, but young guys in their halves,” McCormack said. 

“We were sort of the opposite and had experience in our 9 and 10 channel and youth on the edges.

“The quality of what James gives you isn’t just what he does with the ball in hand. 

“It’s what he does with his control of the game, how he talks to people, directs players around the park. He just gives everyone a level of calmness and in big moments at this time of the year, you need calm heads.”

Brothers earn the week off following Saturday’s win and will watch on as Wests take on an in-form UQ side who will be looking to extend their unbeaten run to 10 matches when the two sides meet at GPS on Sunday. 

“We had a few walking wounded after Saturday, which is pretty usual for this time of the year,” McCormack said. 

“We’ll work on rebuilding a few of the boys through the early part of this week. We did some yoga on Monday and we’ll keep it pretty light over the next few days. 

“The coaches will begin prepping for both Wests and Uni and then we’ll ramp things up towards the backend of this week.”

McCormack said he didn’t mind which team Brothers face in the September 1 Father’s Day decider, but admitted he was looking forward to watching Sunday’s preliminary final knowing his side has already booked their ticket to the final match of the season.

“We’ve had mixed results against both sides this year and they are both quality teams. 

“It’ll be an interested affair. Jock Campbell is a big inclusion for Uni. From the outside looking in, he provides that same sort of calmness that James (O’Connor) gives to our side. 

“He manages their field position really well so it’ll be interesting to see how Wests try to counter that. 

“The matchup in the pack is also pretty interesting. Uni seem to be a really cohesive unit whereas Wests have a few outstanding individuals. It might come down to if they have their day or not.”