Henderson Cup Grand Final Post Match Q&A:

By Paul Cook – Eastern Suburbs flyhalf Blake Boulton:

clubrugby.com.au: It wasn’t the most expansive of games but when it comes to a Grand Final, you’ll take the win any way it comes I guess?

Blake Boulton: “Yeah, any way is a good way in a Grand Final and West Harbour are a tough side. We had a hard game against them here a few weeks ago so we knew it would be tough and any points we could take, we were going to take them on the day and that helped us home.”

CR: Did you take anything from that previous game?

BB: “Yeah, we gave away a lot of penalties in that game and we piggy-backed them upfield. We’ve done that for the last couple of weeks so this week, our focus was really on discipline and making sure we didn’t give too many penalties and we didn’t do that today so we’re really happy with that.”

CR: You were down by 3pts at half-time, what was the focus?

BB: “The focus was on calming down. We panicked a lot in the first half and threw a lot of passes that probably shouldn’t have been thrown so the focus was to settle down and play the type of footy we wanted to play and we did that in the second half.”

CR: You kept your discipline while they lost theirs and you made them pay with your boot and there were a couple of long range efforts at the end that you must be really pleased with?

BB: “Yeah, very happy. Any chance you get you’ve got to try and knock them over so I’m very pleased.”

CR: They were pressure kicks as well with it being a Grand Final on their own turf in front of a few of their noisy supporters doing their best to put you off?

BB: “Ah, any kick is a pressure kick I guess, it was just good to get the win.”

CR: That’s your second successive Premiership – some achievement?

BB: “Yeah, two in a row does make it extra special because you don’t get many teams at any grade level backing up from one year to the next.”

CR: You’ve got two young, driven and ultimately successful coaches at the helm who now have two trophies from their first two seasons in the role. What do they bring to the table?

BB: “They’re just really good. They’re young and enthusiastic and keep us on our toes at training. They know their footy and they’re really a part of the team because they’re young coaches. We’re a close group of guys and that really helped us throughout the year.”

CR: Three in a row next year?

BB: “Hopefully!”

West Harbour captain Pat Alexander:

CR: Commiserations, always tough to lose at the final hurdle, especially when it comes down to penalties?

Pat Alexander: “Yeah, full credit to Easts, they played a hard game. The scoreline shows that no tries were scored so that shows the level of commitment from both sides on the day.”

CR: You drew 14-14 all with them here three weeks ago, did you take anything from that game into today?

PA: “Well, we were actually undefeated on this ground all year until today so it just shows how close the gap is between the two teams.”

CR: You got your noses in front at half-time – what was the chat at the break?

PA: “We hadn’t lost a second half this year so being up at the break, we were looking to pile on the points. Unfortunately, they didn’t come and we made some poor decisions but that happens in Grand Final football.”

CR: Ill discipline was an issue and when you’ve got a guy who can slot them from virtually halfway, that’s costly?

PA: “What can you do? Full credit to him too, they were pressure kicks and he hit them all.”

CR: Despite today’s result, can you reflect on a good season for the side?

PA: ‘A terrific season. I love these boys, it was all fantastic and we left it all out there.”

Eastern Suburbs joint head coaches Tate Hawkins & Tom Bowden

clubrugby.com.au: It was a tight game last year as well from memory but you win these Grand Finals any which way you can don’t you?

Tom Bowden: We scored a try last year but this one was definitely a tighter game but as expected following that draw a few weeks ago. We knew it would be a tough game but we thought we would be able to play a bit more of our football than we did. In patches we did it but otherwise they were really good at unsettling us and being really physical.

Tate Hawkins:  Finals football just comes down to winning and kicking your penalty goals essentially and we got there in the end.

CR: You had a fair amount of territory in the first half but as you said, they defended manfully didn’t they?

TH: Their defence has been good all year, I think they’ve only conceded about seven more points than us across the season and fifty points on this ground in eleven games so it was never going to be an easy day. We knew we were never going to run through them because their whole game is based on defence.

TB: I thought it was really good for our guys to recompose themselves in the second half because they’d got their tails up and they had a bit of momentum towards the end of the first half so I thought it was credit to our guys to really settle themselves down and go back to playing our style and our phases of football and come away with the victory.

CR: The additions of De Bartolo, Ward and Brenac are rather handy too aren’t they?

TH:  “We chased them up early season and had them coming in and out and even with their experience, a couple of these guys hadn’t won a Premiership before and with the club, they’ve played over a hundred first grade games each so it was really good to make sure that they came back and are giving back a lot to the younger guys who are learning a lot from them. They really add a lot and the boys really like playing with them as well.”

CR: Two years as coaches, two Premierships. What’s the secret?

TB: “Good culture and plenty of beers!”

TH: “If you’re happy off the field, you’re happy on it.”

CR: Three in a row next year?

TB: “We’ll see what happens.”

TH: “Who knows, we’ll see where we land.”