Southcity will be without their biggest strike weapon for the grand final rematch with Gundagai on Sunday.
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Star centre Usaia O’Sullivan will miss the clash at Harris Park.
The imposing figure is the Bulls go-to man in attack, both with ball in hand and in the air, but is unavailable for the clash.
Southcity captain-coach Kyle McCarthy admitted it was a big blow for the side.
A lot of the Bulls plays focus on the left edge with Nathan Rose and O’Sullivan.
However McCarthy has been working on creating different attacking opportunities for the premiers and is confident Riley Flint can cover the void.
“We’ve got big Riley Flint going in there, who is another big body, so the kicking will stay the same,” McCarthy said.
“But over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to fix our middle and our line running in the middle so I think it will be our point of attack this week.
They will get a chance to see how it works against a Tigers outfit coming off three straight wins which sees them into the top four for the first time this season.
After beating Gundagai in the last two grand finals, the Bulls scored a thrilling come-from-behind win when the two teams last met.
Southcity trailed 20-0 before scoring after the half-time siren and then going on to take a two-point win at Anzac Park.
Gundagai generally start well so the Bulls are looking to counteract that.
“We have to weather the storm,” McCarthy said.
“They are always big and physical to start the match and are hard to go with early, as we found last time.”
McCarthy will also have a new position, reverting back to the hooker role.
Mick Glanville has been playing there but with Pani Manawatu working in Queensland this fortnight, McCarthy wanted to change things.
“I thought we’ve been missing a bit of speed there,” he said.
“The blokes filling in have been pretty good, but getting more speed out of there is probably going to be the key.
“We look good with Pani in there so I thought I better jump in.”
Josh Siegwalt will step into halfback.
Gundagai have a number of injury concerns heading into the clash but James Luff expects to be right after another scare with his knee in the win over Cootamundra last week.
After sitting out again last week, front rower Joel Field has also been named to take his place in the side for the first time since round four.
However former Bulls coach Nick Skinner is still another week away with his knee injury.
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