By Jon Geddes

EASTERN Suburbs players have adopted a siege-like mentality as the team strives to end a 55-year Shute Shield drought in Saturday’s massive grand final against Northern Suburbs at Leichhardt Oval.

The Beasties found themselves front and centre of drama in the second half of this season after a breach of the SRU player point cap system saw the first grade side docked five competition points and the club fined $100.

Easts still won the minor premiership and have made the grand final in six grades this weekend.

But that achievement has been overshadowed, rightly or wrongly, by the controversy and animosity from rivals. The hostility on social media has not let up.

“No one wants to see us win, that’s sort of what it comes down to,” Easts skipper Josh Bokser told Rugby News.

“It’s a good thing for a lot of us, especially a group like this who come from everywhere all over the world.

“Every single one of them is my brother now, so we’ll do it for each other.”

STAYING FOCUSSED

BOKSER said the spotlight on the club in the countdown to the finals had not been a distraction for the playing group.

“I think our coaching staff did a really good job keeping us focussed in where we needed to be and what we needed to achieve,” he said. “We all had the common goal.”

In fact, Bokser said the storm has only brought the team even closer together. 

“100 per cent it has,” he said. “We are a very tight-knit group and we’ve got other’s back right through.”

Bokser said that showed in the team’s 38-34 win over Warringah in last Saturday’s grand final qualifier against Warringah at North Sydney Oval.

Easts secured their spot in the grand final when winger Darby Lancaster scored the winning try with 12 seconds left on the clock.

“It took 79 minutes to win that game, so it doesn’t come easy,” Bokser said.

But he said there were areas of their game that they needed  to improve on Saturday.

“We certainly gave away a lot of penalties so our discipline will have to change,” he said.

The tough Kiwi secondrower has led his team through their huge turnaround after finishing 10th last year.

He was born and bred in the rugby stronghold of Christchurch before moving over the ditch four years ago.

“It  was an opportunity to play Shute Shield, I was stuck in the same program over there and wanted to see the bright lights of Sydney,” he said.

THE UNDERDOGS 

NORTHS in-form skipper Harry Burey says Easts will go into the game as favourites among most punters to claim their first Shute Shield title since 1969.  

“Obviously they are minor premiers, full of professional standard players,” Burey said.

“I think the general consensus is they came first and they have been pretty dominant over the back end of the season.

“I would imagine we have been written off already, but we have been sort of written off the last few weeks anyway – and we seem to just keep showing up and getting the job done.

“So hopefully we can do that one more time.”          

A KICK IN THE BACKSIDE

NORTHS secured their grand final spot after an impressive 34-17 win over Randwick last Saturday.     

And they have been gaining momentum in the build-up to Saturday’s clash.  

“I there is a very good vibe around the club at the moment,” Burey said.

“Thankfully we feel like we have played pretty well over the last month.

“There is more excitement around the potential of winning rather than pressure.”

Burey said the team’s disappointing 27-25 loss to Gordon in round 17 had given the team a bit of a kick up the backside.

“I think from there we have just been playing a bit freer and trying to attack the game a bit more –  and that is suiting us,” he said.

Attacking the game is what they certainly did with their defensive effort against Randwick, which was often Super Rugby  standard.

“It’s been a bit infectious lately because of the guys who naturally put on big shots like Hugh Sinclair, Ed Timpson and Luke Gersekowski,” Burey said.

“When you see the bloke next to you putting on a big tackle, people around lift from that and they want to get in for a piece of their own as well.”