Salford Red Devils assistant coach Danny Orr says the club should go into the play-offs with confidence.
Having finished second-bottom last year, Salford sealed a top-six spot this time around with last Monday’s impressive 50-10 win at Castleford, where Orr was both a player (in two spells) and assistant coach.
That meant the pressure was off ahead of their final regular-season game at home to Warrington, who were 32-14 winners at the AJ Bell Stadium.
Now Paul Rowley’s side are gearing up for a visit to Huddersfield, led by their former coach Ian Watson, in the eliminators on Saturday – and Orr is eager for the mission.
After Challenge Cup elimination by Wigan, the Red Devils suffered five straight league defeats in April, and were third-bottom after round eleven.
But the response was strong, with eleven wins from the next 15 matches clinching play-off involvement for the first time since 2019, when Watson’s side beat Castleford and Wigan to book Grand Final showdown with St Helens, who won 23-6 at Old Trafford.
“We’ve been building to this from mid-season,” said Orr, who arrived in December 2020 to work with then-coach Richard Marshall and confirmed in July that he will leave at the end of this season.
“We’ve been consistent for about ten weeks, and the confidence is really starting to show.
“The lads truly believe that, if they play the way we can, we can compete with anybody and beat anybody, and that’s been showing on the field.
“It’s not an arrogance, overthinking or getting ahead of ourselves. We’ve had some really good wins against some really good teams.”
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