Rabbitohs star Euan Aitken opens up on unwanted finals record, Roosters preparing for major mismatch against Tigers, nrl daily, nrl news

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Aitken will bring up game 199 against the Warriors on Saturday before he cracks 200 next week on the Gold Coast, with Souths to lock in a top-eight berth as long as they don’t implode in the final few weeks of the season.

Finals droughts are fairly common in the team with Jayden Sullivan never having played in one, Matt Dufty’s last appearance was in 2018, while Sean Keppie and David Fifita have gone five years.

Aitken could have joined Dufty and Lawrie in the 2018 finals but suffered a hamstring injury in the penultimate round of the season.

It means his only finals game was 11 years ago when the Dragons lost to the Bulldogs, with Benji Marshall leading the Red V around the park before he left the game with a serious ankle injury.

“It stings. It hurts the most. That’s all you want to do as a footy player is win games, play finals and try for that ultimate premiership at the back end,” Aitken said of his finals wait.

“I’ve been around for a while now, played over 200 games, so that’s all I want to do. That’s the last thing I need to do is to have a good finals series, and hopefully we can get there.

“It’s definitely a motivation. Some years are very trying and you’re not winning a lot of games, so by the end of the year you sort of want a break.

“But when you’re in a good team, all you want to do is keep playing, play finals games, and obviously the ultimate goal at the end of the day is the premiership. That’s what we want to achieve.

“It’s probably not a spoken-about thing, but I think a few (teammates) might know. It adds to my motivation that all I want to do is play finals footy.”

Aitken is just glad to be back playing footy after a nasty virus caused him to miss two games and lose a stack of weight.

“I lost four kilos and spent 10 days pretty much in bed with nine days’ worth of fevers, body aches, and all the rest of it, so it wasn’t a great time,” he said.

“You get a bit of cabin fever as well because there’s not much you can really do besides wait it out. There’s no treatment for influenza A or anything like that.

“I was a bit nervous coming into the game last week because I still hadn’t put the weight back on, but I probably got on the field a bit earlier than I expected with Adam (Souths forward Adam Elliott) going down.

“But it was good to get out there, and I felt a lot better than I actually expected. To come away with the win topped off a good night.”

Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett gave Aitken permission to feast on pizzas and pies in a bid to put the weight back on, but even that had to be balanced to make sure he didn’t go too far the other way.

“I think the majority of food still needs to be pretty healthy and stuff like that, but I was just trying to eat more regularly,” he said.

“You put weight on by eating a lot more calories than you burn, that’s how you do it. It probably helps to be eating healthy whole foods more than bad foods.

“Thankfully, the team managed me really well before that Bulldogs game and didn’t try to do too much where I would have been exhausted for the game.”

— Martin Gabor (NCA NewsWire)

MAJOR MISMATCH A DANGER GAME FOR ROOSTERS

They knocked off the best team of the decade last week, but the Roosters have a very different challenge on Sunday afternoon when they face the lowly Wests Tigers in what shapes as a genuine banana peel game.

But their players insist that won’t be the case and their attitude will be just as ruthless as the one we saw when they beat the Panthers to replace them at the top of the table.

They’ll need to bring that same sort of energy if they want to make it nine wins in a row, with the Wests Tigers enduring a horror couple of months that has them facing their ninth loss on the trot.

“We have the ultimate respect for the Tigers,” in-form forward Nat Butcher said.

“They’ve had so many great games this year, so we’ve got ultimate respect for them, and they’re going to get the best of us come Sunday.”

The Roosters are short-priced favourites with the bookies but did lose to the Tigers at home last year in a massive upset few saw coming, with Trent Robinson’s men set to claim the minor premiership if they keep winning.

“That’s the good thing about the NRL at the moment, anyone can knock off anyone. We’ve seen that throughout this year. I think the Titans knocked off Penrith earlier in the year,” outside back Billy Smith said.

“There are examples of if you’re not on, then you’ll get taken advantage of. For us, we got to have a few days off after the Penrith game, so it was a nice refresh, forget, and move on.

“We know that the Tigers are in a bit of a tough spot at the moment, and I feel like teams that are like that are dangerous because they’re not scared to do anything. They’ll throw as many punches as they want.

“So we’re going to have to be ready, and we’re going to have to honour the round and honour the position on the ladder that we’re in.”

The game holds extra significance for the club, which is hosting its third annual Emergency Services Match at Allianz Stadium.

The Roosters have vowed to recognise and highlight one emergency service each year, with Surf Life Saving NSW the focus in 2026.

Players and staff were at Bondi Beach on Tuesday to run some drills with local heroes who were some of the first responders during last year’s devastating terrorist attack that rocked the area.

“They mean a lot to the community,” Butcher said.

“It’s not just what they do in the water, it’s what they do on the sand and in the surrounding areas.

“A lot of the time they are the first responders, so for them to be well-trained and equipped with the tools to handle a lot of situations is very important. I think they do a great job.

“It’s a huge privilege to be able to celebrate this Emergency Services Round, that we get to host this, play on our home ground, and celebrate all the different services provided to the community.

“This year, being surf lifesaving, it’s very important to the club. It wasn’t just me – a lot of the boys grew up doing Nippers and we have great memories doing that within these communities.

“Being in these eastern suburbs, surf lifesavers play such an important role. Beaches like Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly, the beaches are what they are and as safe as they are because of surf lifesavers.

“We’re extremely grateful for them and what they do, and we’re honoured to be able to celebrate them and play for them this weekend.”

— Martin Gabor (NCA NewsWire)