Tenterfield Tigers head to Ashford

The Tigers posted two wins in their opening two games against Guyra and Bingara and captain-coach Brendan Minns hopes they can keep up their winning ways against the Roosters. 

“We should be back to close enough to full-strength – we welcome back a few of the boys that were out last weekend,” he said. 

“We are looking at going to Ashford and putting our best foot forward.” 

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Minns believes the clash against the Roosters, who were beaten by ladder leaders Warialda in round three, will provide an indication with where his side is sitting in the competition. 

“We will get a good gauge of where we are at this weekend,” he said. 

“Obviously different games, different weekends, they all play out differently but if we can see how we go against Ashford, it will give us a good gauge on where we are at for the next couple of weeks.”

Heading into the game, Minns is expecting his side to muscle up in defence. 

“Just our defence and minimalising our penalties and maximising our time with the ball,” he said. 

“From my perspective, if we can keep the ball in our hands and keep it out of their’s, that will go a long way to us performing well anyway. We just have to be good defensively and our attack will come.

“We have plenty of pace and plenty of flair in the backs so as long as we can be strong defensively, it will go a long way to winning us the game.”

While it is still early in the season, there is a quiet confidence among the Tigers’ camp about the potential to play finals football. 

“If we can at least win every game at home and then pick up a couple on the road, that should make at least in semi-finals contention,” Minns said. 

“But you don't aim to lose any game. We aren't going to Ashford to lose, we are going there with the mentality to win.

“If you can pick up those couple of wins on the road, it makes it a little bit easier at the end of the season, especially this early in the comp.”

The league tag clash will see a battle between two sides fighting for their first win with both Ashford and Tenterfield going down in their opening matches. 

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The Tigerettes took on Bingara two weeks ago in the heat with no substitutes and fell 28-4. 

“We had 11, the bare minimum of players, and a lot of inexperienced players,” coach Wayne Minns said last week. 

“To their credit they gutsed it out and kept trying until the final whistle.”