Southern Inland Rugby Union
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INSPIRATIONAL Albury captain Nathan Bright will play his last game for the Steamers tomorrow, and he won't be alone.
James Kora and Dan Hogg will also hang up the boys following the grand final and all are looking to go out on the high.
The trio were part of Albury's undefeated premiership last season, and after a couple of near-retirements, will bid farewell to their playing days
Preferring not to focus on his individual effort, Bright doesn't want his retirement to influence the Steamers' chances of back to back premierships.
"It would be (a great way to go out), but I don't want to make it about me," he said.
"As soon as the games are about anyone individual you will lose momentum somewhere."
Albury has been there and done it all before, but this year's team has a different look.
Only six people that started in last year's grand final are again in the first 15.
Bright, Ash Lefevre, Ryan Schischka, Liam Krautz, Richard Manion and Le Cornu are all that remains from
Kora will start from the bench tomorrow, while there are another four Steamers who came off the bench last year.
With a raft of retirements and players moving on Hogg, Tom Rowan, Tom Boyle and Hugh Erwin will all get their chance to start in the grand final.
Bright said the opportunities for those four to get the chance to play a more prominent role in a grand final victory is another motivator for the club.
Admitting Albury has had an up and down year, Bright believes the finals win over CSU and Waratahs has brought confidence back into the side.
The Steamers normally play a structured game style, while Griffith are the masters of broken play, however a brilliant burst last weekend has given Bright hope his team can match the Blacks in that department.
Three runaway tries in a five-minute period against the 'Tahs showed Bright a new broken play aspect - one not even Bright knew existed.
"We've actually know shown that we can do that as well - we probably surprised ourselves a little bit there," he said.
"We didn't know we had that in us and all of a sudden we scored three long range tries in about five minutes of actual play from a slight sniff of an opportunity.
"So it could be quite exciting between the two teams."
