The St Marys Saints will line up for their third Leagues Clubs Australia Ron Massey Cup Grand Final against Wentworthville Magpies, when the pair do battle at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on Sunday (3 September).
These two teams faced each other in the deciders of 2018 and 2019, where the Magpies proved victorious on both occasions.
The Saints are hoping that third time is the charm, and the team can win the club’s first Ron Massey Cup in the club’s history.
“It would mean everything,” Saints halfback Zac Greene told nswrl.com.au
“There are countless staff behind closed doors that put in a lot of hours and working into this program at St Marys.
“The history at the club is really strong and if we can get away with the win on Sunday there will be some very excited people there cheering.
“To have a bit of reward for everything that they do would mean the world.”
The Saints were undefeated throughout the regular season – winning all 16 games – improving from their 2022 season to finish on top of the ladder for the Minor Premiership.
After bowing out of the finals last year in straight sets – being knocked out in week two by the Magpies – Greene says his teammates and the coaching staff used this as motivation to go all the way in 2023.
“A lot of the boys were really invested in this season after a disappointing 2022 season,” Greene said.
“We rocked up to preseason last year and didn’t take our foot of the pedal. We focused on getting ourselves into a really good physical position because if you’re fit and physical that’s half of your success.
“We have a really good coaching staff with really good football brains, and they have instilled game plans that have worked and could be changed to fit the team we were playing that week.
“The hunger has been there from the start.”
Despite having back-to-back wins over Wenty during the regular season, in Week Two of the finals the Magpies pulled off a shock 18-12 win against the Saints to advance to the Grand Final, leaving St Marys to face 2022 runners up the Glebe Dirty Reds.
The Saints bounced back from their first loss of the season with a convincing 52-0 win over the Dirty Reds last Saturday to cement their spot in the Final for the first time since 2019.
“The loss was the reality check we needed hopefully,” Greene said.
“We made some really bad mistakes against Wenty last time. However, after the loss we revisited what we need to do and what our blueprint was, and I believe we put that on the field on Saturday against Glebe,” he said of the nine tries to zero win.
“We put together a really good team performance and hopefully we can go out there this weekend and do the same thing.”
