Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles will get a good indication of where their season is at when they tackle the in-form St George-Illawarra Dragons this Sunday.
St George-Illawarra made it three straight wins with a 22-12 victory over Wentworthville last weekend to sit in fourth place on 18 points. The Sea Eagles are in eighth place on 15 competition points.
Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles Coach Steven Hales said his side was excited by the challenge facing them at WIN Stadium, Wollongong, on Sunday.
"You look at both teams on paper and it is a quality game. We will get a few of our NRL boys back this week and it will obviously be a real lift for us,'' Hales said.
"The Dragons are one of the form teams of the competition at the moment. This is a really good challenge for us and one that we are up for.
"It will definitely tell us where we are at this week as a team. If we can win this one, we will take a lot of confidence moving forward towards the finals."
The Sea Eagles go into the game on the back of a 26-18 loss to Western Suburbs Magpies at Leichhardt Oval last Saturday.
Blacktown Workers started the game perfectly with a try to hooker Joey Lussick in their first set off a nice break by exciting young half-back Cade Cust.
"Cade is going from strength to strength. He is really growing as a player being around men and playing against blokes who have played a lot of first grade,'' Hales said.
"He laid on that first try and then showed his toughness when he battled on through the game with a cork in his leg.
"Cade didn't want to come from the field and wanted to keep playing for his team-mates. It was a sign of real maturity that he wanted to continue to contribute to our team."
Hales said it was unfortunate that Wests' first three tries came off kicks.
"We were very resilient on our line and we defended hard but we put ourselves under pressure in our own end through poor errors. We need to stop that,'' Hales said.
"The last few weeks we have gone away from that and we were getting sides into transition and making them come out of their own end.
"However when you invite teams down your end, unfortunately things like that can happen and luck didn't go our way. We found ourselves on the back end of an 18-6 scoreline and it makes it hard to come back from there.
"We just didn't own the big moments in the game and we paid the price for it."
Intrust Super Premiership Rd 15
Dragons v Sea Eagles
WIN Stadium, Wollongong
Sunday, June 17, 1pm
