Werribee Bears issued a warning to the rest of the NRL Victoria first grade finalists with its 44-16 pummelling of contenders Doveton Steelers on their home turf at Betula Reserve on Saturday.
The Bears not only secured second spot and a finals double chance with the victory, but delivered one of their most intimidating performances of the year, disposing of the side directly below them on the ladder.
“It was one of the most complete performances thus far,” Bears’ player-coach Phil Pese told Star Weekly.
“It’s really good that it happened at the end of the year when it’s going to count the most, so we can carry on that momentum to the finals.”
Tongues will be wagging around the competition about the brutal Werribee defence.
Enforcer Tasmania Johansson set the tone as the Bears muscled up to rattle the Steelers’ forward pack.
“He can really hit some big guys,” Pese said.
“The guys kind of feed off his energy on defence.
“We’ve got a lot of power on defence and it really rattles other teams.”
This was also an offensive party for Werribee.
The Bears scored tries at will as they took advantage of their forced turnovers.
Lock forward Tuitoga Leota was outstanding with ball in hand, so too were Josh Tauai and Redeem Saleupolu.
The only negative for the Bears was an injury to Saleupolu. Saleupolu landed awkwardly on his shoulder, and there were fears it could be serious, but he is likely to only miss a week as a precautionary measure to ensure he is right for week one of the finals in a fortnight.
“It’s more of a stinger than anything else,” Pese said.
“I spoke to Radeem after the game and said he might as well have the weekend off and prepare himself for the Casey game in the semi finals because we need him one hundred per cent for that.”
Werribee was relieved to have second spot sewn up. They will host Waverley-Oakleigh Panthers at Haines Drive Reserve on Saturday knowing they cannot be overtaken.
“It was really good to get the win and get it out of the way,” Pese said.
“But I was more concerned with how we won and how we performed on the day.
“Win or lose, it was the attitude of the guys that I was concentrating on, and their attitude within the 80 minutes was really good.
“They were all playing for each other and played like they wanted to get the result.”
