By MARK CASHMAN

It’s fair enough to say that Gordon mentor Darren Coleman has done a few laps during his coaching career, won premierships and turned a few ailing clubs in the right direction.

Coleman has coached at Norths, Penrith, Easts, Warringah and now Gordon but he reckons this group of Highlanders has best attitude of them all.

The Highlanders secured the minor premiership on Saturday at the foot of the mountains as they raced away from Penrith in a 97-0 win.

“The beauty of this group over the past two years, more so than any team I’ve coached is attitudinally they rarely have a bad day,” Coleman said.

“Eastwood in round five last year and Norths earlier this season were the only two games I’ve been involved where I thought this team were out enthused or at least not equal.

“Every week they give at least an 8 out of 10 in attitude and hence our results this year have been consistent.

“It’s a coaches dream. I was pleased with their focus and execution on Saturday when it could have been less.

“Next week we play for the club championship and Sir Roden Cutler Shield so it’ll be another exciting week with rewards at the end if we work hard enough.

I believe you need to celebrate the good days as they don’t happen regularly and winning the minor premiership made it a good day.”

The scoreline wasn’t a good look for the Shute Shield with Penrith invited to remain part of the competition next year.

But Coleman reckons that the scoreline wasn’t a true indication of what is going on up there at Penrith.

“The scoreline was surprising. I was at Penrith in 2017 with the Rats and Penrith were kicked out after that game,” Coleman said.

“The place is different now, it was dead then. This trip I was very happy to see, a small crowd but most importantly, lots of new volunteers, things were well organised, there was music playing and all their teams had decent numbers.

“They were always going to have a few dips in the season and this was one for them. The place has a pulse and is worth persevering with. I didn’t feel that in 2017.”

GORDON 97 (Peter Chanel Tagaloa, Brendan Mitchell, Jacob Abel, Oli Smeallie 2, Ellis Abrahams, Tautalatasi Tasi 3, Reed MacDonald, Lucas Price, Mike Pavlakis, Ahmu Tuimalealiifano, Jack Dempsey tries; Harrison Goddard 11 conversions) d PENRITH 0 at Nepean Rugby Park.

IMAGE: ANDREW QUINN / GORDON RUGBY