Easts head coach Simon Craig says his side is ready for a crucial final-round fixture against GPS this weekend, with the result set to determine whether the Tigers finish the regular season in first, second or third place.

Currently sitting third on the ladder, Easts will finish equal on points with Wests if they can beat GPS on the road – and will leapfrog the Bulldogs into top spot based on total wins, which is the first tiebreaker used to separate teams on equal competition points.

“If we win and get four points, we finish on the same points as Wests and jump them on wins,” Craig told Rugby News.

“And if we win and Brothers somehow lose to Souths, that will be enough to win the minor premiership.

“Our focus is making the top two. The minor premiership would be nice, but at the end of the day, as I said to the boys, ‘you don’t gain anything out of that.’”

Craig said his side was on track to achieve their goal.

“We sat down after the Brothers game and looked at where we were at and where we want to be – and obviously that’s playing in the grand final,” he said.

“We put it into a five-game block and we’re just going one game at a time. Last week was game one against Sunnybank, and we got what we needed – a five-point win. Now we want the same this weekend.”

He said the team had placed a strong emphasis on correcting key areas during the week and ensuring players were across their roles heading into a physical clash with GPS.

“It was all about us this week,” he said.

“We spent a lot of time Tuesday night correcting some of our processes and getting our detail right.

“It’s frustrating that we’re 17 rounds in and some players still don’t know their detail – but that’s club footy. If we get our game right and stick to our plan for 70 percent of the match, we’ll be a handful for GPS.”

Easts will again be without standout hooker Max Craig, who suffered an injury two weeks ago, with former Reds rake Andrew Ready continuing to deputise.

“Max is a hard guy to replace. We’re lucky we’ve got Andrew there, but he doesn’t give us what Max does, so we’ve had to tweak the way we’re playing a little bit,” Craig said.

With several key players returning and squad depth improving across the board, Easts appear to be peaking at the right time.

But first, they’ll need to get past a GPS side who will not play in the finals but are playing for pride in front of a home crowd in their final match of the season.

“They’ll be fired up, no doubt. But if we play to our standard, we’ll be tough to beat,” Craig said.