Central Coast RL: Wyong Roos looking to emulate 2014 premiership side

Facing an almost do-or-die scenario in order to make the finals, the Wyong Roos are taking inspiration from the club’s 2014 premiership victory.

Six weeks ago Wyong’s season looked just about dead and buried.

Following back-to-back losses to Woy Woy and defending premiers Toukley, the Roos had slipped four points outside the top four with a record of three wins and five losses.

Sensing the season was on the line, captain-coach Todd Lewis gave his side a reality check at training.

“We just let the boys know that we only had six games to go, and if we want to be playing semi-finals come August then we’ve got to win either four of the six and wait on other results, or win all of our games to confirm our spot in the semis,” he said.

“All week our theme was: ‘No talk, just actions’,” Lewis added, “and I think that was a bit of a rev up of what they needed.”

Wyong has charged back into finals contention. Picture: Sue Graham

The chat certainly seems to have had the desired effect. Since the round eight loss to the Hawks the Roos have won three straight to surge back into the top four and control their own destiny in terms of the finals race.

This included a 30-18 win over fellow finals hopefuls The Entrance, a crushing 64-6 demolition of Kincumber in what is the biggest victory this season, and a crucial 24-10 win against third-placed Terrigal in the Roos’ last start.

Wyong now sits fourth on 12 points, two behind the Sharks and ahead of the fifth-placed Tigers on points difference. Fast-finishing Woy Woy is three points back on nine.

“We’ve only got three games to go now and we’ve sort of gotten into that ‘do or die’ stage with our last month of footy, so Terrigal was a non-negotiable for us that we had to win to give ourselves the best chance to make the semis,” said Lewis.

While the Roos’ will arguably hit the weekend as the form team of the comp, on Sunday they face off with table-topping Erina in what is a blockbuster clash.

“We’ve got Erina this weekend, then Berkeley Vale and Woy Woy, who are absolutely tearing it up the moment, so we don’t really have any easy games to finish,” said Lewis.

“Four from four was the goal for the last month, but three from four is something that we need to do to make sure that we give ourselves the best chance not to rely on other results.”

Captain-coach Todd Lewis says a change in mindset has helped the team. (Photo by Paul Barkley/LookPro)

While they have a tough run home, Lewis has cast his mind back nearly a decade and drawn plenty of confidence from a Roos team of the past.

“It’s funny, last time we were in this position we won the comp in 2014, so although that’s a little while ago, for a couple of us older boys it was refreshing to say that we’ve been here before and we know what to do,” he said.

Under captain-coach Dean Amos, Lewis was one of the younger players in a team that also featured future NRL players Jacob Liddle and Adam Keighran.

“We just scraped into the semis in fifth spot and then just went five in a row,” he said.

The Roos will be hoping to continue their impressive run against Erina on Sunday. Picture: Sue Graham

“We knocked off Terrigal in the first semi and they had an absolutely star-studded line-up and then went on to beat Berkeley Vale (8-6 in the grand final) who were favourites with players like Alex Moore, Jimmy Davis, Steve Lyons and all of those calibre of players.

“Again, the big thing was that we just wanted to make sure we were having fun while we were playing, we had nothing to lose. But that was another team where we had just a bunch of young kids – except for Deano who was the coach.”

Given the team’s strong run of form over the past few weeks, Lewis is backing his side to keep the momentum going as they look to recreate history.

“We did a lot of talking for the first half of the year and the motto since then has just been ‘actions’. That’s been the thing that we’ve seen the dramatic change in, and that’s been super promising,” he said.

“Probably the biggest thing is that we’re starting to complete now. At the start of the year we were the only team that was beating us, and now that we’re starting to complete and get into the grind with teams, we’re starting to finally play the footy that I know we can.”