Patience is a virtue for NTRU grand finalists Casuarina

DESPITE losing its first six games, Casuarina is 80 minutes away from a premiership

Casuarina player Josh Phillips

DESPITE losing its first six games, Casuarina is 80 minutes away from a premiership – and hooker Josh Phillips says it’s thanks to patience.

Ahead of Saturday night’s NTRU grand final against South Darwin, Phillips told the NT News his club were always confident of making it; the key was trusting one another.

“The boys never really lost faith in the game plan and knew that if we kept persevering with what we were learning, and if we kept building towards what we were trying to achieve – we knew we would be there come finals,” Phillips said.

“That was our goal, and once we made finals, we knew we could go all the way. (Coach) Joe Albert never lost faith in us, which kept the team’s faith in his system. It shows how close we are as a group and the resilience to get there. It’s a massive credit to the entire group and the club itself.”

Cougars won eight of their last 11 matches to qualify for the decider, their second in as many years.

They were beaten by University 24-20 in 2017 having held a 10-0 lead at halftime, but Phillips said that had been discussed only sparingly this week.

“We haven’t talked about last year’s grand final too much,” he said.

“We just mentioned briefly a couple of little things that let us down in that grand final, the one per cent jobs that people didn’t do, but that’s about it.”

Phillips said this year’s Cougars outfit was just as strong as the one which went so close in 2017.

“I would have to say they are about the same,” he said.

“We have a different forward pack, so we have been playing a different game plan.

“We are playing to what we are strong at. Our backline is slightly different as well.

“We are playing to our strengths, but again that’s a credit to how well Joe can coach.”