Maitland Pickers captain Alex Langbridge says his teammates take great pride in trying to win a third Presidents Cup trophy for the Hunter Valley city.
In their path will be another team bursting with a sense of purpose in western Sydney's St Marys Saints led by back rower Joe Vaegaau.
The battleground is CommBank Stadium this Sunday (24 September) after the Pickers won the NSWRL’s Northern Conference (Denton Engineering Cup) and the Saints claimed the Central Conference (Leagues Clubs Australia Ron Massey Cup).
The Presidents Cup is a state-wide, third-tier knockout competition.
“The Maitland community, and I might be a little bit biased, is the best in NSW country rugby league,’’ Langbridge told nswrl.com.au
“We get so much support – every single home game we have great crowds and that’s a big part of why we want to play for the Pickers and represent the area.
“It’s been a historic rugby league community that’s produced so many footballers. And that’s a big part of what we talk about in wanting to continue that legacy and build on it.”
Pickers coach Matt Lantry has impressed on his players the prestige around the Presidents Cup, especially going for a hat-trick. They won the 2020 Cup against Glebe-Burwood Wolves (17-16) - the 2021 season was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.
“It’s enormous and something we hold in very high regard to be crowned as the best amateur-semi professional club in NSW. That’s really important to us,” Lantry said.
Maitland is acutely aware of the talent in the Saints line-up, which generated a 40-12 seven tries-to-two win over Wentworthville in the Ron Massey Cup final on 3 September.
“They dominated the competition all year and in that Ron Massey grand final performance they were unbelievable,” Langbridge said.
“We’re going to need to be on top of our game to compete with them. They’ll come out firing as they did against Wenty so we have to muscle-up in the middle and do a good job there.”
It helps that the starting 13 for the Pickers this Sunday is the same 13 who beat Hills Bulls 36-12 last year.
“It does give us a lot of confidence because you can fall back on those combinations that have worked the past two years, so we’re very fortunate,” Langbridge said.
In the halves Player of the Match last year, Chad O’Donnell, and former Newcastle Knights NRL five-eighth Brock Lamb have been keenly followed by St Marys.
“We’ve studied some good clips of all of them so we’ve seen their threats and where we can expose them,” Vaegaau said.
“Their halves are central to them – they start the sets well and end them well.
“So if we can get at those two and wear them down, that’ll help us break through.”
There was little to no grand final-hangover among the Saints, Vaegaau said.
“It was a little bit hard to come off that (premiership) high … it’s been a long year. But we love playing together so we’re up for this weekend’s game most definitely.
“Our forward pack has been good all season getting on the front foot but our back five is where it really starts.
“We’ve got a few of the NRL boys coming back and contributing for us in Christian Crichton and Tony Satini.
“We’re ready and we know all about them wanting the three (Presidents Cup) wins,” Vaegaau said.
“It’s a big key for us, a big motivator. We are up for the challenge – we’ll give it to them.”
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