Nick Gleeson says he has thoroughly enjoyed his first season with Wagga City and hopes his opening campaign with the local club extends well beyond Saturday.
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City is currently gearing up for its minor semi-final clash with Tumut after going down to Waratahs 37-21 at Conolly Rugby Complex on the weekend.
The former Griffith forward said it would take a well-rounded effort to get on top of Tumut.
“Their forwards are always very strong, but watching them against Aggies on the weekend, they exploited them out wide too,” he said.
“So we’ll really have to be on the ball right across the park to stop their go-forward.
“I’m confident we can pull that off, but also wary that if we don’t, we’ll pay for it.”
City went down to Tumut 29-19 when the two sides first clashed in round six, but managed to down the Bulls 30-24 during round 13 late last month.
“We didn’t play our style of footy the first time around,” Gleeson said.
“But when we played them again we played the game on our terms and controlled the game a lot more.
“We want to be stopping their go-forward through the middle of the ground, and once we do that we need to hold onto the ball.”
Gleeson added that he was thrilled with his decision to join City, after leaving Griffith last season due to work commitments.
“They’re a great bunch of guys and we have a fantastic group of people supporting the club as well,” he said.
The dynamic forward said it took some time to adjust to his new club, due to being used to a vastly different playing style.
“There’s quite a strong Tongan and Fijian influence at Griffith and that brings quite a different style of footy,” he said.
“They play a very exciting style over there and when they see a hole, they push to exploit it, regardless of what’s going on around them.
“But here it’s much more structured.
“It’s been great to experience both styles.”
Wagga City takes on Tumut at Leeton No.1 Oval on Saturday for a spot in the preliminary final.
