QUEANBEYAN Whites coach Adam Fahey believes his men's defence is good enough to win them their first premiership since 2010 after his men won straight through to the grand final at Viking Park last Saturday.
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They beat John I Dent Cup heavyweights the Tuggeranong Vikings 33-32 in an effort that Fahey labelled "a great achievement", as he prepares for a personal milestone to take his maiden first grade premiership as a coach.
"Our defence I thought was outstanding in patches [against Tuggeranong]," he said.
"We defended for long periods of time throughout the game, and we were able to deny them points and apply pressure to force turnovers, which allowed us to score the amount of points we did score."
They were forced to defend for most of the last 20 minutes against the Vikings as the favourites tried putting Queanbeyan under the pump.
"It's a positive to be able to finish a game off defensively, and you can use that pressure as your ally" said Fahey.
The Whites have a week off before facing the winner of this Saturday's preliminary final between the Gungahlin Eagles and the Vikings on August 9, but Fahey said his men would not be resting.
"We're under no illusions. We have a monumental task in the grand final whoever we play," he said.
The Whites have fielded a lot of young blood this season, and remarkably, only skipper Dan Penca is left from the Whites side that took the 2010 premiership.
Each other player will be playing their first grand finals, and Fahey said training would be kept simple for that reason.
"We'll let Gungahlin and Tuggeranong bash each other up on Saturday and we'll simply just play the winner," he said.
"The boys are quite relaxed at the moment. There's no real pressure on them. Even though we won straight through to the grand final, we'll still go in as underdogs."
"We'll keep things as normal as possible, despite the fact it's a big game. You've got to keep some consistency in your routine so the boys know what to do."
The grand final will kick-off at 3.15pm on August 9 at Viking Park, while the preliminary final between Tuggeranong and Gungahlin kicks off at the same time and place this Saturday.