NRL: Coach looking for balance

Coach John Ackland. Photo / Getty Images

The perennial question of whether it's better to have a week's break during finals football is being tackled by the Junior Warriors.

They play the Bulldogs in Brisbane on Friday after the Dogs beat the Roosters 24-22 last night.

Last week, the Junior Warriors came from behind to beat Manly 25-22 and move to within one win of the grand final. That's an honour they narrowly missed in 2008.

Coach John Ackland is trying to make the most of the break and a practice match was the only real vigorous activity this week.

He says it helps to have surety, even if they have a two-week break, and home advantage is often nullified by the fact under-20 sides play curtainraisers to NRL finals.

"We know our opponents will have to travel, too," he says. "They can't play it in Sydney.

"Once players are finished practice for the day I encourage them to go away and do something else. It takes their mind off it and keeps them keen and fresh."

The Junior Warriors' minds have been "on it" for most of this season after starting poorly with three defeats and a draw. They finished second to Souths in the regular season and established the best defensive record, conceding just 481 points, and the best points differential of 250.

They also had the third-best attacking record with 731 points.

Ackland says it's recognition of the club's development programme

"The last five years have been fantastic," Ackland says. "We've had our ups and downs given the cutthroat nature of competition, but the culture has been good.

"The history of the club is of local boys made good; it's the best part of it. We've been [financially] bankrupt in the past but the one constant has been the performance of the locals."

Ackland cites the likes of Stacey Jones, Ali Lauitiiti and Manu Vatuvei as players who have made that step to being local heroes and says Simon Mannering, Jerome Ropati and Sam Rapira are not far behind.

Bill Tupou has gone from under-20s to first grade this season.

Tupou played 12 games (less than half) in both competitions. Players must feature in more than half of the under-20 regular season games to be eligible for the finals, unless the club's first-grade team are still involved.