NEWCASTLE THUNDER coach Graham Steadman believes his side’s opening play-off performance against Widnes showed they treated an earlier setback at the hands of the Vikings as the wake-up call he wanted it to be.
And the experienced coach believes there is further improvement to come as he aims to maximise the value of a weekend off ahead of a preliminary final which provides a passport to the title decider.
The north-east team were beaten 30-20 by Allan Coleman’s men in the quarter-finals of the 1895 Cup in May, one of only five defeats in 29 outings so far this season.
Seventeen weeks on, they beat Widnes 30-20 in their qualifying final at Blaydon, a 13th successive win for the league’s second-placed side, and Steadman said: “It was pleasing.
“We’d won 15 in a row in the league, but without being disrespectful to the sides we had beaten, we knew Widnes were a step up, and that they had done a bit of a number on us in the 1895 Cup.
“I told the players at the time to treat it as a wake-up call, and their preparation and performance showed me they had.
“Widnes are a good and well-coached team. We needed to bring our A-game, to get an eight out of ten from at least 80 percent of the players, and I think we did.”
With partner club York’s season over, meaning an end to joint training sessions, Steadman, who has been able to call on a number of Knights players as loanees, is now working with a “core Thunder squad”.
And while lower numbers have limited the type of drills staged, he added: “The intensity the players have been showing has been excellent, and I think there is even more to come from them.”