Souths coach Garrick Morgan should get his hands on most of his troops ahead of this year’s Hospital Cup finals series in a massive boost for a Magpies outfit chasing their first premiership in close to a decade. 

Souths have sat comfortably at the pointy end of the ladder for most of the regular season but are yet to play with their full contingent at Chipsy Wood Oval. 

“We still haven’t really played with a settled team yet this year but we’ve got a lot of guys to come back in the coming weeks and it feels like a bit of a perfect storm. 

“We’ve got Trevor King, John Bryant and Finn Hearn back this week, then we should get Harry (McLaughlin–Phillips) and Connor Vest next week and potentially Taj Annan for the Wests game or the first week of the finals. 

“We’ve had a real squad feeling all year and I think we’ve done a good job in making every player feel like they’re a real part of the team, whether they play every week or only get a few minutes off the bench.” 

Souths travel to face a Bond outfit on Saturday who won’t feature in this year’s finals. But Morgan said that won’t make them any less dangerous on the Gold Coast. 

“It’s always a tough afternoon against Bond. They’ve got a lot of x-factor in the backs, especially out wide. Young (Rhian) Stowers is having a really good year and looks dangerous. 

“We’ve been averaging 50 points in attack. I didn’t think we’d score 50 points one week and still end up losing a game, but that’s footy sometimes. 

“Our defence has been good all year but it’s an area we’ll continue to work on because we know how important it will be come finals time.”

Brothers can wrap up the minor premiership with a win over Norths this weekend but things are extremely tight below that. 

Just two competition points separates Wests, UQ and Souths with two matches to play, while GPS remain a mathematical chance of sneaking into the playoffs. 

Morgan’s side needs just one bonus point from their next two matches to guarantee a spot in the playoffs and could jump into the top two and book a major semi finals berth against Brothers if they beat Bond and Wests and other results go their way. 

“Finishing in the top two is important but it’s not the be all and end all for us,” the coach said. 

“As a club, we haven’t had much success for a long, long time, so any finals game we play in is going to be important and it’s going to be new territory for a lot of our boys. 

“There’s a massive amount of self belief within the group and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do in the weeks ahead.”

While Morgan said his focus was on the next two weeks, he admitted it was difficult not to get excited about some of the rugby that we all have ahead of us. 

“It’s going to be a really exciting finals series,” he said. 

“All the teams play a fairly different style of rugby and they’ve all got different qualities. 

“Momentum will be important I think. We had a bit at the start of the year. Brothers have been consistent from the start and Wests and UQ both seem to be finding momentum now. 

“If we can get our best side on the park in the next week or two, then I think we’ll keep getting better in every game we play.”

In the rounds other matches, UQ host Sunnybank, Brothers travel to face Norths and Wests host Easts.