Driving Penrith Brothers in 2024 ahead of this Saturday’s Sydney Shield Grand Final is what happened to the club in 2023.
Brothers made it all the way to the Preliminary final last year to lose to Hills Bulls by a try, 22-18.
So when Ryde-Eastwood Hawks scored three unanswered tries in last week’s Preliminary final to get themselves within eight points of Brothers (24-16) with 28 minutes on the clock, memories of 12 months ago crept in.
“Last week when Ryde started to get their roll on, it was PTSD all over,” skipper Sia Sisifa told nswrl.com.au
“We weren’t panicking but everyone thought about last year. So we thought let’s change it up; change the momentum.
“We came back and we finished it off.”
Brothers scored two tries in the final 10 minutes to secure the win over the Hawks (38-16) and a spot in the grand final against Wentworthville United.
And once again they’ve come from down in the depths of the Sydney Shield ladder – just nine wins, eight losses and a draw – to scrape into the finals. The keys have been commitment and resilience.
“I think a lot of the boys have just bought into what we’ve been trying to do the whole year,” Sisifa said.
“After the last two finals games, everyone is locked in and thinking now about what we can achieve as a team, as a whole.
“Our year quite frankly had been pretty rocky – up and down. We’ve been closer to the bottom of the table than to the top.
“We scraped into the finals but look where we are now – I’m so proud of the boys.”
Which brings us to the message from coach Brad Vaughan this week …
“Resilience … have resilience in everything we do, and stick to our processes. If we go away from that, and we lose, then that’s on us,” Sisifa said.
“The word ‘resilience’ has been a massive thing for us the last couple of weeks.”
Fullback Dean Kammel (nine tries), winger Michael Pokia and centre Mitchell Owen (eight tries each) have been invaluable scoring points but Sisifa defers to the two teammates who set most of the plays up – five-eighth Donovan Boney and halfback Tyran Pettit-Young.
“Personally Donovan and our No.7 have been ridiculous for us throughout the whole season.
“They’ve been in our side the last three years and we’ve played finals the last three.”
Knocking over Wentworthville will take patience and perseverance, Sisifa said.
“They are just a good-attitude team. They keeping doing the basic things right and they just wait for you to make the mistakes.
“As a coach that’s ideal. They’re not minor premiers for no reason.”
But Sisifa said there was a great amount of pride flowing through the team.
“I’m stoked for the boys – really happy for them. From where we’ve come from, to play in two grand finals over the past three years, it’s so good to see the direction the club is headed.
“It would be our first title so that would be very special.”
